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THE NEXT 
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CARL W AilifeM AN 









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[Par. ,.1 un;ui.'ma. 











GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 
CARL W, ACKERMAN 



The title ''Germany, The Next Republic?" is 
chosen because the author believes this must be 
the goal, the battlecry, of the United States and 
her Allies. As long as the Kaiser, his generals 
and the present leaders are in control of Ger- 
many 's destinies the world will encounter the same 
terrorism that it has had to bear during the war. 
Permanent peace will follow the establishment of 
a Republic. But the German people will not over- 
throw the present government until the leaders are 
defeated and discredited. Today the Reichstag 
Constitutional committee, headed by Herr Scheide- 
mann, is preparing reforms in the organic law but 
so far all proposals are mere makeshifts. The 
world cannot afford to consider peace with Ger- 
many until the people rule. The sooner the United 
States and her Allies tell this to the German 
people officially the sooner we shall have peace. 



In cos cress, July 4, i//s 






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A!A-^^'UA-<ir!r./duA/C^i.A,<..,'-UA~t/y*i.^pGiL.^iAiUAtA,^ 










dJ/UuOh. 







A DOCUMENT CIRCULATED BY "tHE LEAGUE OF TRUTH*'— 
THE RED, BLOODY HAND ON THE DECLARATION OF INDE- 
PENDENCE 



GERMANY, 

THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 



BY 

CARL W. ACKERMAN 




NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



ZD5I5- 



COPYRIGHT, 191 7, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



M 30 1917 

PRINTED IN THE tINITED STATES OF AMERICA 






PREFACE 

I was at the White House on the 29th of June, 
1914, when the newspapers reported the assassi- 
nation of the Archduke and Archduchess of Aus- 
tria. In August, when the first declarations of 
war were received, I was assigned by the United 
Press Associations to "cover'' the belligerent em- 
bassies and I met daily the British, French, Bel- 
gian, Italian, German, Austro-Hungarian, Turk- 
ish and Japanese diplomats. When President 
Wilson went to New York, to Rome, Georgia, to 
Philadephia and other cities after the outbreak of 
the war, I accompanied him as one of the Wash- 
ington correspondents. On these journeys and in 
Washington I had an opportunity to observe the 
President, to study his methods and ideas, and to 
hear the comment of the European ambassadors. 

When the von Tirpitz blockade of England was 
announced in February, 1915, I was asked to go 
to London where I remained only one month. 
From March, 1915, until the break in diplomatic 
relations I was the war correspondent for the 
United Press within the Central Powers. In Ber- 
lin, Vienna and Budapest, I met the highest gov- 
ernment officials, leading business men and finan- 



vi PREFACE 

ciers. I knew Secretaries of State Von Jagow 
and Zimmermann ; General von Kluck, who drove 
the German first army against Paris in August, 
1914; General von Falkenhayn, former Chief of 
the General Staff; Philip Scheidemann, leader of 
the Eeichstag Socialists ; Count Stefan Tisza, Min- 
ister President of Hungary and Count Albert 
Apponyi. 

While my headquarters were in Berlin, I made 
frequent journeys to the front in Belgium, France, 
Poland, Russia and Roumania. Ten times I was 
on the battlefields during important military en- 
gagements. Verdun, the Somme battlefield, Gen- 
eral Brusilotf 's offensive against Austria and the 
invasion of Roumania, I saw almost as well as a 
soldier. 

After the sinking of the Liisitania and the be- 
ginning of critical relations with the United States 
I was in constant touch with James W. Gerard, 
the American Ambassador, and the Foreign Office. 
I followed closely the effects of American political 
intervention until February 10th, 1917. Frequent 
visits to Holland and Denmark gave me the im- 
pressions of these countries regarding President 
Wilson and the United States. En route to Wash- 
ington with Ambassador Gerard, I met in Berne, 
Paris and Madrid, officials and people who inter- 
preted the affairs in these countries. 

So, from the beginning of the war until today, I 
have been at the strategic points as our relations 
with Germany developed and came to a climax. 



PREFACE vii 

At the beginning of the war I was sjTQpathetic 
with Germany, but my sympathy changed to dis- 
gust as I watched developments in Berlin change 
the German people from world citizens to narrow- 
minded, deceitful tools of a ruthless government. 
I saw Germany outlaw herself. I saw the effects 
of President Wilson's notes. I saw the anti- 
American propaganda begin. I saw the Germany 
of 1915 disappear. I saw the birth of lawless 
Germany. 

In this book I shall try to take the reader from 
Washington to Berlin and back again, to show the 
beginning and the end of our diplomatic relations 
with the German government. I believe that the 
United States by two years of patience and note- 
writing, has done more to accomplish the destruc- 
tion of militarism and to encourage freedom of 
thought in Germany than the Allies did during 
nearly three years of fighting. The United States 
helped the German people think for themselves, 
but being children in international affairs, the peo- 
ple soon accepted the inspired thinking of the gov- 
ernment. Instead of forcing their opinions upon 
the rulers until results were evident, they chose 
to follow with blind faith their military gods. 

The United States is now at war with Germany 
because the Imperial Government willed it. The 
United States is at war to aid the movement for 
democracy in Germany; to help the German peo- 
ple realize that they must think for themselves. 
The seeds of democratic thouorht which Wilson's 



viii PREFACE 

notes sowed in Germany are growing. If the Im- 
perial Government had not frightened the people 
into a belief that too much thinking would be dan- 
gerous for the Fatherland, the United States 
would not today be at war with the Kaiser's gov- 
ernment. Only one thing now will make the people 
realize that they must think for themselves if they 
wish to exist as a nation and as a race. That is a 
military defeat, a defeat on the battlefields of the 
Kaiser, von Hindenburg and the Rhine Valley 
ammunition interests. Only a decisive defeat will 
shake the public confidence in the nation's leaders. 
Only a destroyed German army leadership will 
make the people overthrow the group of men who 
do Germany's political thinking to-day. 

C. W. A. 
New York, May, 1917. 



''Abraham Lincoln said that this Re- 
public could not exist half slave and half 
free. Now, with similar clarity, we per- 
ceive that the world cannot exist half 
German and half free. We have to put 
an end to the bloody doctrine of the su- 
perior race — to that anarchy which is 
expressed in the conviction that German 
necessity is above all law. We have to 
put an end to the German idea of ruth- 
lessness. We have to put an end to the 
doctrine that it is right to make every 
use of power that is possible, without re- 
gard to any restriction of justice, of 
honour, of humanity. ' ^ 

New York Trihunef 
April 7, 1917, 



CONTENTS 



Preface 



CHAPTER 

I. Mobilization of Public Opinion . 

II. ''Pirates Sink Another Neutral Ship" 

III. The Gulf Between Kiel and Berlin 

IV. The Hate Campaign Against America 

V. The Downfall of von Tirpitz and von 
Falkenhayn 

VI. The Period of New Orientation . 

VII. The Bubbling Economic Volcano . 

VIII. The Peace Drive of December 12th 

IX. The Bernhardi of the Seas 

X. The Outlawed Nation . 

XI. The United States at War 

XII. President Wilson 

Appendix 



PAGE 

v 

17 
36 
56 
73 

97 
122 
150 
169 
191 
218 
238 
267 
291 



XI 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Document Circulated by ''The League of 
Truth" — The Red Bloody Hand on the 
Declaration of Independence . . . Frontispiece'^ 

PAGE 

First Page OF THE Author's Passport . ... 26"^ 

A ''Berlin" Extra 44^ 

Blood-Traffickers 75' 

First Page of the Magazine ''Light and Truth" 80^ 

An Anti- American Propaganda Document . . 85"^ 

GoTT Strafe England 124' 

This Is the Photograph of von Hindenburg 
Which Every German Has in His Home . . 140 ' 

The Food Situation at a Glance 149 

The Pope to President Wilson — "How Can My 
Peace Angel Fly, Mr. President, When You 
Always Put Shells in Her Pockets ?" . . . 172 '^ 

"God Will Not Permit the German People to 
Go Down" 183 

The New Weather Cape 196 

Chart Showing Tonnage of Ships Sunk by Ger- 
man Submarines from Rear Admiral Holl- 

weg's Book 202 

xiii 



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

An Advertisement in the Berlin "Deutsche 

TaGES-ZeITUNG " FOR THE BoOK — ''PRESIDENT 

Bluff" Meaning President Wilson . . . 220 

The Kaiser's New Year Order to the Army and 
Navy 239 

Schwab to Mr. Wilson — "For Heaven's Sake, 
Great Little Leader, the Whole Place Will 
Blow up if You Smoke Here!" 248 

"The New Old President. Long Live America! 
Long Live Peace ! Long Live the Ammunition 
Factories!" 260 

The Wilson Will 269 

The Author's Card of Admission to the Reichs- 
tag ON April 5th, 1916 274' 

Ambassador Gerard Arriving in Paris . . . 282 

A Post-Card from General von Kluck . . . 288 * 



GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC ? 



GERMANY, THE NEXT 
REPUBLIC? 



CHAPTER I 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 



T 



HE Haupttelegraphenamt (the Chief Tele- 
graph Office) in Berlin is the centre of the 
entire telegraph system of Germany. It is 
a large, brick bnilding in the Franzoesischestrasse 
guarded, day and night, by soldiers. The side- 
walks outside the building are barricaded. With- 
out a pass no one can enter. Foreign correspond- 
ents in Berlin, when they had telegrams to send 
to their newspapers, frequently took them from 
the Foreign Office to the Chief Telegraph Office 
personally in order to speed them on their way 
to the outside world. The censored despatches 
were sealed in a Foreign Office envelope. With 
this credential correspondents w^ere permitted to 
enter the building and the room where all tele- 
grams are passed by the military authorities. 

During my two years' stay in Berlin I went to 
the telegraph office several times every week. 

17 



18 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Often I had to wait wliile the military censor read 
my despatches. On a large bulletin board in this 
room, I saw, and often read, documents posted 
for the information of the telegraph oflQcials. 
During one of my first waiting periods I read an 
original document relating to the events at the 
beginning of the war. This was a typewritten 
letter signed by the Director of the Post and 
Telegraph. Because I was always watched by a 
soldier escort, I could never copy it. But after 
reading it scores of times I soon memorised every- 
thing, including the periods. 
This document was as follows: 

Office of the Imperial Post & Telegraph 

August 2nd, 1914. 

Announcement No. 3. 
To the Chief Telegraph Office : 

From to-day on, the Post and Telegraph com- 
munications between Germany on the one hand 
and: 

1. England, 

2. France, 

3. Eussia, 

4. Japan, 

5. Belgium, 

6. Italy, 

7. Montenegro, 

8. Servia, 

9. Portugal; 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 19 

on tlie other hand are interrnpted because Ger- 
many finds herself in a state of war. 
(Signed) Director of the Post and Telegraph. 

This notice, which was never published, shows 
that the man who directed the Post and Tele- 
graph Service of the Imperial Government knew 
on the 2nd of August, 1914, who Germany's ene- 
mies would be. Of the eleven enemies of Ger- 
many to-day only Roumania and the United 
States were not included. If the Director of the 
Post and Telegraph knew what to expect, it is 
certain that the Imperial Government knew. This 
announcement shows that Germany expected war 
with nine different nations, but at the time it was 
posted on the bulletin board of the Haupttele- 
graphenamt, neither Italy, Japan, Belgium nor 
Portugal had declared war. Italy did not declare 
war until nearly a year and a half afterwards, 
Portugal nearly two years afterward and Japan 
not until December, 1914. 

This document throws an interesting light upon 
the preparations Germany made for a world war. 

The White, Yellow, Grey and Blue Books, which 
all of the belligerents published after the begin- 
ning of the war, dealt only with the attempts of 
these nations to prevent the war. None of the 
nations has as yet published white books to show 
how it prepared for war, and still, every nation 
in Europe had been expecting and preparing for 
a European conflagration. Winston Churchill, 



20 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

when lie was First Lord of the Admiralty, stated 
at the beginning of the war that England's fleet 
was mobilised. France had contributed millions 
of francs to fortify the Russian border in Poland, 
although Germany had made most of the guns. 
Belgium had what the Kaiser called, **a con- 
temptible little army'' but the soldiers knew how 
to fight when the invaders came. Germany had 
new 42 cm. guns and a network of railroads which 
operated like shuttles between the Russian and 
French and Belgian frontiers. Ever since 1870 
Europe had been talking war. Children were 
brought up and educated into the belief that some 
day war would come. Most people considered it 
inevitable, although not every one wanted it. 

During the exciting days of August, 1914, 1 was 
calling at the belligerent embassies and legations 
in Washington. Neither M. Jusserand, the French 
Ambassador, nor Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the Brit- 
ish Ambassador, nor Count von Bernstorff, the 
Kaiser's representative, were in Washington 
then. But it was not many weeks until all three 
had hastened to this country from Europe. Al- 
most the first act of the belligerents was to send 
their envoys to Washington. 

As I met these men I was in a sense an agent 
of public opinion who called each day to report 
the opinions of the belligerents to the readers of 
American newspapers. One day at the British 
Embassy I was given copies of the White Book 
and of many other documents which Great Britain 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 21 

had issued to show how she tried to avoid the 
war. In conversations later with Ambassador von 
Bernstorff, I was given the German viewpoint. 

The thing which impressed me at the time was 
the desire of these officials to get their opinions 
before the American people. But why did these 
ambassadors want the standpoints of their gov- 
ernments understood over here? Why was the 
United States singled out of all other neutrals? 
If all the belligerents really wanted to avoid war, 
why did they not begin twenty years before, to 
prevent it, instead of, to prepare for it? 

All the powers issued their official documents 
for one primary purpose — to win public opinion. 
First, it was necessary for each country to con- 
vince its own people that their country was being 
attacked and that their leaders had done every- 
thing possible to avoid war. Even in Europe peo- 
ple w^ould not fight without a reason. The German 
Government told the people that unless the army 
was mobilised immediately Russia would invade 
and seize East Prussia. England, France and Bel- 
gium explained to their people that Germany was 
out to conquer the world by way of Belgium and 
France. But White Books were not circulated 
alone in Europe ; they were sent by the hundreds 
of thousands into the United States and trans- 
lated into every known language so that the peo- 
ple of the whole world could read them. 

Then the word battles between the Allies and 
the Central Powers began in the United States. 



^2 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

While the soldiers fought on the battlefields of 
Belgium, France, East Prussia and Poland, an 
equally bitter struggle was carried on in the 
United States. In Europe the object was to stop 
the invaders. In America the goal was public 
opinion. 

It was not until several months after the be- 
ginning of the war that Sir Edward Grey and 
Chancellor von Bethmann-HoUweg began to dis- 
cuss what the two countries had done before the 
war, to avoid it. The only thing either nation 
could refer to was the 1912 Conference between 
Lord Haldane and the Chancellor. This was the 
only real attempt made by the two leading bel- 
ligerents to come to an understanding to avoid 
inevitable bloodshed. Discussions of these con- 
ferences were soon hushed up in Europe because 
of the bitterness of the people against each other. 
The H;>Tiin of Hate had stirred the German peo- 
ple and the Zeppelin raids were beginning to sow 
the seeds of determination in the hearts of the 
British. It was too late to talk about why the 
war was not prevented. So each set of belliger- 
ents had to rely upon the official documents at the 
beginning of the war to show what was done to 
avoid it. 

These White Books were written to win public 
opinion. But why were the people suddenly taken 
into the confidence of their governments! Why 
had the governments of England, France, Ger- 
many and Russia not been so frank before 1914? 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 23 

Why had they all been interested in making the 
people speculate as to what would come, and how 
it would come about? Why were all the nations 
encouraging suspicion? Why did they always 
question the motives, as well as the acts, of each 
other? Is it possible that the world progressed 
faster than the governments and that the gov- 
ernments suddenly realised that public opinion 
was the biggest factor in the world! Each one 
knew that a war could not be waged without pub- 
lic support and each one knew that the sym- 
pathy of the outside world depended more upon 
public opinion than upon business or military re- 
lations. 

H 

How America Was Shocked by the War 

Previous to July, 1914, the American people 
had thought very little about a European war. 
While the war parties and financiers of Europe 
had been preparing a long time for the conflict, 
people over here had been thinking about peace. 
Americans discussed more of the possibilities of 
international peace and arbitration than war. 
Europeans lived through nothing except an ex- 
pectancy of war. Even the people knew who the 
enemies might be. The German government, as 
the announcement of the Post and Telegraph Di- 
rector shows, knew nine of its possible enemies 
before war had been declared. So it was but nat- 



24 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

iiral, when tlie first reports reached the United 
States saying that the greatest powers of Europe 
were engaged in a death struggle, that people 
were shocked and horrified. And it was but nat- 
ural for thousands of them to besiege President 
Wilson with requests for him to offer his services 
as a mediator. 

The war came, too, during the holiday season in 
Europe. Over 90,000 Americans were in the war 
zones. The State Department was flooded with 
telegrams. Senators and Congressmen were 
urged to use their influence to get money to 
stranded Americans to help them home. The 235 
U. S. diplomatic and consular representatives 
were asked to locate Americans and see to their 
comfort and safety. Not until Americans real- 
ised how closely they were related to Europe could 
they picture themselves as having a direct in- 
terest in the war. Then the stock market began 
to tumble. The New York Stock Exchange was 
closed. South America asked New York for credit 
and supplies, and neutral Europe, as well as 
China in the Far East, looked to the United States 
to keep the war within bounds. Uncle Sam be- 
came the Atlas of the world and nearly every bel- 
ligerent requested this government to take over 
its diplomatic and consular interests in enemy 
countries. Diplomacy, commerce, finance and 
shipping suddenly became dependent upon this 
country. Not only the belligerents but the neu- 
trals sought the leadership of a nation which 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 25 

could look after all the interests, except those of 
purely military and naval operations. The eyes 
of the world centred upon Washington. Presi- 
dent Wilson, as the official head of the govern- 
ment, was signalled out as the one man to help 
them in their suffering and to listen to their ap- 
peals. The belligerent governments addressed 
their protests and their notes to Wilson. Belgium 
sent a special commission to gain the President's 
ear. The peace friends throughout the world, 
even those in the belligerent countries, looked to 
Wilson for guidance and help. 

In August, 1914, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, the 
President's wife, was dangerously ill. I was at 
the White House every day to report the devel- 
opments there for the Uliited Press. On the eve- 
ning of the 5th of August Secretary Tmnulty 
called the correspondents and told them that the 
President, who was deeply distressed by the war, 
and who was suffering personally because of his 
wife's illness, had written at his wife's bedside 
the following message : 

'^As official head of one of the powers signa- 
tory to The Hague Convention, I feel it to be my 
privilege and my duty, under Article III of that 
Convention, to say to you in the spirit of most 
earnest friendship that I should welcome an op- 
portunity to act in the interests of European 
peace, either now or at any other time that might 
be thought more suitable, as an occasion to serve 



26 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

you and all concerned in a way that would afford 
me lasting cause for gratitude and happiness. 
* * ( Signed ) Woodko w Wilson. ' ' 

The President's Secretary cabled this to the 
Emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary ; the 
King of England, the Czar of Russia and the 
President of France. The President's brief note 
touched the chord of sympathy of the whole 
world; but it was too late then to stop the war. 
European statesmen had been preparing for a 
conflict. With the public support which each na- 
tion had, each government wanted to fight until 
there was a victory. 

One of the first things which seemed to appeal 
to President Wilson was the fact that not only 
public opinion of Europe, but of America, sought 
a spokesman. Unlike Roosevelt, who led public 
opinion, unlike Taft, who disregarded it, Wilson 
took the attitude that the greatest force in the 
world was public opinion. He believed public 
opinion was greater than the presidency. He felt 
that he was the man the American people had 
chosen to interpret and express their opinion. 
Wilson's policy was to permit public opinion to 
rule America. Those of us who spent two years 
in Germany could see this very clearly. 

The President announced the plank for his in- 
ternational policy when he spoke at the annual 
meeting of the American Bar Association, at 
Washington, shortly after the war began. 




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MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 27 



(( 



The opinion of the world is the mistress of the 
world/' he said, ^^and the processes of interna- 
tional law are the slow processes by which opinion 
works its will. What impresses me is the con- 
stant thought that that is the tribunal at the bar 
of which we all sit. I would call your attention, 
incidentally, to the circumstance that it does not 
observe the ordinary rules of evidence ; which has 
sometimes suggested to me that the ordinary rules 
of evidence had shown some signs of growing an- 
tique. Everything, rumour included, is heard in 
this court, and the standard of judgment is not 
so much the character of the testimony as the 
character of the witness. The motives are dis- 
closed, the purposes are conjectured and that 
opinion is finally accepted which seems to be, not 
the best founded in law, perhaps, but the best 
founded in integrity of character and of morals. 
That is the process which is slowly working its 
will upon the world; and what we should be 
watchful of is not so much jealous interests as 
sound principles of action. The disinterested 
course is not alone the biggest course to pursue; 
but it is in the long run the most profitable course 
to pursue. If you can establish your character 
you can establish your credit. 

*^ Understand me, gentlemen, I am not ventur- 
ing in this presence to impeach the law. For the 
present, by the force of circumstances, I am in 
part the embodiment of the law and it would be 
very awkward to disavow myself. But I do wish 



28 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

to make this intimation, that in this time of world 
change, in this time when we are going to find out 
just how, in what particulars, and to what extent 
the real facts of human life and the real moral 
judgments of mankind prevail, it is worth while 
looking inside our municipal law and seeing 
whether the judgments of the law are made square 
with the moral judgments of mankind. For I be- 
lieve that we are custodians of the spirit of right- 
eousness, of the spirit of equal handed justice, 
of the spirit of hope which believes in the perfecti- 
bility of the law with the perfectibility of human 
life itself. 

*^ Public life, like private life, would be very 
dull and dry if it were not for this belief in the 
essential beauty of the human spirit and the be- 
lief that the human spirit should be translated 
into action and into ordinance. Not entire. You 
cannot go any faster than you can advance the 
average moral judgment of the mass, but you can 
go at least as fast as that, and you can see to it 
that you do not lag behind the average moral 
judgments of the mass. I have in my life dealt 
with all sorts and conditions of men, and I have 
found that the flame of moral judgment burns 
just as bright in the man of humble life and lim- 
ited experience as in the scholar and man of af- 
fairs. And I would like his voice always to be 
heard, not as a witness, not as speaking in his 
own case, but as if he were the voice of men in 
general, in our courts of justice, as well as the 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 29 

voice of the lawyers, remembering what the law 
has been. My hope is that, being stirred to the 
depths by the extraordinary circumstances of the 
time in which we live, we may recover from those 
steps something of a renewal of that vision of the 
law with which men may be supposed to have 
started out in the old days of the oracles, who 
commune with the intimations of divinity." 

Before this war, very few nations paid any at- 
tention to public opinion. France was probably 
the beginner. Some twenty years before 1914, 
France began to extend her civilisation to Eussia, 
Italy, the Balkans and Syria. In Roumania, to- 
day, one hears almost as much French as Eou- 
manian spoken. Ninety per cent of the lawyers 
in Bucharest were educated in Paris. Most of 
the doctors in Eoumania studied in France. 
France spread her influence by education. 

The very fact that the belligerents tried to mob- 
ilise public opinion in the United States in their 
favour shows that 1914 was a milestone in interna- 
tional affairs. This was the first time any foreign 
power ever attempted to fight for the good wiU 
— the public opinion — of this nation. The govern- 
ments themselves realised the value of public 
opinion in their own boundaries, but when the 
war began they realised that it was a power in- 
side the realms of their neighbours, too. 

Wlien differences of opinion developed between 
the United States and the belligerents the first 
thing President Wilson did was to publish all the 



30 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

documents and papers in the possession of the 
American government relating to the controversy. 
The publicity which the President gave the dip- 
lomatic correspondence between this government 
and Great Britain over the search and seizure 
of vessels emphasised in Washington this ten- 
dency in our foreign relations. At the beginning 
of England ^s seizure of American merchantmen 
carrying cargoes to neutral European countries, 
the State Department lodged individual protests, 
but no heed was paid to them by the London offi- 
cials. Then the United States made public the 
negotiations seeking to accomplish by publicity 
what a previous exchange of diplomatic notes 
failed to do. 

Discussing this action of the President in an 
editorial on *^ Diplomacy in the Dark/^ the New 
York World said; 

''President Wilson's protest to the British 
Government is a clear, temperate, courteous as- 
sertion of the trade rights of neutral countries in 
time of war. It represents not only the estab- 
lished policy of the United States but the estab- 
lished policy of Great Britain. It voices the opin- 
ion of practically all the American people, and 
there are few Englishmen, even in time of war, 
who will take issue with the principles upheld by 
the President. Yet a serious misunderstanding 
was risked because it is the habit of diplomacy 
to operate in the dark. 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC Oi'INION 31 

** Fortunately, President Wilson by making the 
note public prevented the original misunderstand- 
ing from spreading. But the lesson ought not 
to stop there. Our State Department, as Mr. 
Wickersham recently pointed out in a letter to 
the World, has never had a settled policy of pub- 
licity in regard to our diplomatic affairs. No 
Blue Books or White Books are ever issued. 
What information the country obtains must be 
pried out of the Department. This has been our 
diplomatic policy for more than a century, and 
it is a policy that if continued will some day end 
disastrously. ' ' 

Speaking in Atlanta in 1912, President Wilson 
stated that this government would never gain an- 
other foot of territory by conquest. Tliis dispelled 
whatever apprehension there was that the United 
States might seek to annex Mexico. Later, in ask- 
ing Congress to repeal the Panama Tolls Act of 
1912, the President said the good will of Europe 
was a more valuable asset than commercial ad- 
vantages gained by discriminatory legislation. 

Thus at the outset of President Wilson's first 
administration, foreign powers were given to un- 
derstand that Mr. Wilson believed in the power 
of public opinion ; that he favoured publicity as a 
means of accomplishing what could not be done 
by confidential negotiations; that he did not be- 
lieve in annexation and that he was ready at any 
time to help end the war. 



32 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

in 
Before the Blockade 

President Wilson's policy during tlie first six 
months of the war was one of impartiality and 
neutrality. The first diplomatic representative 
in Washington to question the sincerity of the 
executive was Dr. Const antine Dumba, the exiled 
Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, who was sent to 
the United States because he was not a noble, 
and, therefore, better able to understand and in- 
terpret American ways! He asked me one day 
whether I thought Wilson was neutral. He said 
he had been told the President was pro-English. 
He believed, he said, that everything the Presi- 
dent had done so far showed he sympathised 
with the Entente. While we were talking I re- 
called what the President 's stenographer, Charles 
L. Swem, said one day when we were going to 
New York with the President. 

''I am present at every conference the Presi- 
dent holds, ' ' he stated. * ^ I take all his dictation. 
I think he is the most neutral man in America. I 
have never heard him express an opinion one way 
or the other, and if he had I would surely know 
of it." 

I told Dr. Dumba this story, which interested 
him, and he made no comments. 

As I was at the White House nearly every day 
I had an opportunity to learn what the President 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 33 

would say to callers and friends, although I was 
seldom privileged to use the information. Even 
now I do not recall a single statement which ever 
gave me the impression that the President sided 
with one group of belligerents. 

The President's sincerity and firm desire for 
neutrality was emphasised in his appeal to *^My 
Countrymen.'' 

^^The people of the United States," he said, 
*^are drawn from many nations, and chiefly from 
the nations now at war. It is natural and inevi- 
table that there should be the utmost variety of 
sympathy and desire among them with regard ta 
the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some 
will wish one nation, oth,ers another, to succeed 
in the momentous struggle. It will be easy to ex- 
cite passion and difficult to allay it. Those re- 
sponsible for exciting it will assume a heavy re- 
sponsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than 
that the people of the United States, whose love 
of their country and whose loyalty to the gov- 
ernment should unite them as Americans all, 
bound in honour and affection to think first of 
her and her interests, may be divided in camps of 
hostile opinion, hot against each other, involved 
in the war itself in impulse and opinion, if not in 
action. 

'^My thought is of America. I am speaking, I 
feel sure, the earnest wish and purpose of every 
thoughtful American that this great country 
of ours, which is of course the first in our 



M GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

thoughts and in our hearts, should show herself 
in this time of peculiar trial a nation fit beyond 
others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed 
judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency 
of dispassionate action ; a nation that neither sits 
in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her 
own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free 
to do what is honest and disinterested and truly 
serviceable for the peace of the world. ' ' 

Many Americans believed even early in the 
war that the United States should have protested 
against the invasion of Belgium. Others thought 
the government should prohibit the shipments of 
war supplies to the belligerents. America was 
divided by the great issues in Europe, but the 
great majority of Americans believed with the 
President, that the best service Uncle Sam could 
render would be to help bring about peace. 

Until February, 1915, when the von Tirpitz sub- 
marine blockade of England was proclaimed, only 
American interests, not American lives, had been 
drawn into the war. But when the German Ad- 
miralty announced that neutral as well as bellig- 
erent ships in British waters would be sunk with- 
out warning, there was a new and unexpected ob- 
stacle to neutrality. The high seas were as much 
American as British. The oceans were no na- 
tion's property and they could not justly be used 
as battlegrounds for ruthless warfare by either 
belligerent. 

Germany, therefore, was the first to challenge 



MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION 35 

American neutrality. Germany was the first to 
threaten American lives. Germany, which was 
the first to show contempt for Wilson, forced the 
President, as well as the people, to alter policies 
and adapt American neutrality to a new and 
grave danger. 



CHAPTER II 



'^PIBATES SINK ANOTHEK NEUTRAL SHIP" 



ON February 4th, 1915, the Reiclisanzeiger, 
the official newspaper of Germany, pub- 
lished an announcement declaring that 
from the 18th of February ^^all the waters sur- 
rounding Great Britain and Ireland as well as the 
entire English channel are hereby declared to be 
a war area. All ships of the enemy mercantile 
marine found in these waters will be destroyed 
and it will not always be possible to avoid danger 
to the crews and passengers thereon. 

^^ Neutral shipping is also in danger in the war 
area, as owing to the secret order issued by the 
British Admiralty January 31st, 1915, regarding 
the misuse of neutral flags, and the chances of na- 
val warfare, it can happen that attacks directed 
against enemy ships may damage neutral vessels. 

^^The shipping route around the north of The 
Shetlands in the east of the North Sea and over 
a distance of thirty miles along the coast of The 
Netherlands will not be dangerous.^* 

Although the announcement was signed by Ad- 
miral von Pohl, Chief of the Admiralty Staff, the 
real author of the blockade was Grand Admiral 

36 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 37 

von Tirpitz. In explanation of the announcement 
the Teutonic- Allied, neutral and hostile powers 
were sent a memorandum which contained the fol- 
lowing paragraph : 

*^The German Government announces its inten- 
tion in good time so that hostile as tvell as neutral 
ships can take necessary precautions accordingly. 
Germany expects that the neutral powers will 
show the same consideration for Germany's vital 
interests as for those of England, and will aid 
in keeping their citizens and property from this 
area. This is the more to be expected, as it must 
be to the interests of the neutral powers to see 
this destructive war end as soon as possible." 

On February 12th the American Ambassador, 
James W. Gerard, handed Secretary of State von 
Jagow a note in which the United States said : 

* * This Government views these possibilities with 
such grave concern that it feels it to be its privi- 
lege, and indeed its duty in the circumstances, 
to request the Imperial German Government to 
consider before action is taken the critical situa- 
tion in respect of the relations between this coun- 
try and Germany which might arise were the Ger- 
man naval officers, in carrying out the policy fore- 
shadowed in the Admiralty's proclamation, to 
destroy any merchant vessel of the United States 
or cause the death of American citizens. 



68 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

**It is of course unnecessary to remind the Ger- 
man Government that the sole right of a bel- 
ligerent in dealing with neutral vessels on the 
high seas is limited to visit and search, unless a 
blockade is proclaimed and effectively maintained, 
which the Government of the United States does 
not understand to be proposed in this case. To 
declare and exercise the right to attack and de- 
stroy any vessel entering a prescribed area of the 
high seas without first accurately determining 
its belligerent nationality and the contraband 
character of its cargo, would be an act so unpre- 
cedented in naval warfare that this Government is 
reluctant to believe that the Imperial German 
Government in this case contemplates it as pos- 
sible/' 

I sailed from New York February 13th, 1915, 
on the first American passenger liner to run the 
von Tirpitz blockade. On February 20th we 
passed Queenstown and entered the Irish Sea at 
night. Although it was moonlight and we could 
see for miles about us, every light on the ship, ex- 
cept the green and red port and starboard lan- 
terns, was extinguished. As we sailed across the 
Irish Sea, silently and cautiously as a muskrat 
swims on a moonlight night, we received a wire- 
less message that a submarine, operating oif the 
mouth of the Mersey River, had sunk an English 
freighter. The captain was asked by the British 
Admiralty to stop the engines and await orders. 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 39 

Within an hour a patrol boat approached and es- 
corted us until the pilot came aboard early the 
next morning. No one aboard ship slept. Few 
expected to reach Liverpool alive, but the next 
afternoon we were safe in one of the numerous 
snug wharv^es of that great port. 

A few days later I arrived in London. As I 
walked through Fleet street newsboys were hur- 
rying from the press rooms carrying orange-col- 
oured placards with the words in big black type : 
^* Pirates Sink Another Neutral Ship.'' 

Until the middle of March I remained in Lon- 
don, where the wildest rumours were afloat about 
the dangers off the coast of England, and where 
every one was excited and expectant over the re- 
ports that Germany was starving. I was urged 
by friends and physicians not to go to Germany 
because it was universally believed in Great Brit- 
ain that the war would be over in a very short 
time. On the 15th of March I crossed from Til- 
bury to Rotterdam. At Tilbury I saw pontoon 
bridges across the Thames, patrol boats and sub- 
marine chasers rushing back and forth watching 
for U-boats, which might attempt to come up the 
river. I boarded the Batavia IV late at night and 
left Gravesend at daylight the next morning for 
Holland. Every one was on deck looking for sub- 
marines and mines. The channel that day was as 
smooth as a small lake, but the terrible expecta- 
tion that submarines might sight the Dutch ship 



40 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

made every passenger feel that tlie submarine 
war was as real as it was horrible. 

On the 17th of March, arriving at the little 
German border town of Bentheim, I met for the 
first time the people who were already branded 
as *'Huns and Barbarians'' by the British and 
French. Officers and people, however, were not 
what they had been pictured to be. Neither was 
Germany starving. The officials and inspectors 
were courteous and patient and permitted me to 
take into Germany not only British newspapers, 
but placards which pictured the Germans as pi- 
rates. Two days later, while walking down TJn- 
ter den Linden, poor old women, who were al- 
ready taking the places of newsboys, sold Ger- 
man extras with streaming headlines: ^^ British 
Ships Sunk. Submarine War Successful." In 
front of the LoJcal Anzeiger building stood a large 
crowd reading the bulletins about the progress 
of the von Tirpitz blockade. 

For luncheon that day I had the choice of as 
many foods as I had had in London. The only 
thing missing was white bread, for Germany, at 
the beginning of the war, permitted only Kriegs- 
brot (war bread) to be baked. 

All Berlin streets were crowded and busy. 
Militaiy automobiles, auto-trucks, big moving 
vans, private automobiles, taxi-cabs and carriages 
hurried hither and thither. Soldiers and officers, 
seemingly by the thousands, were parading up 
and down. Stores were busy. Berlin appeared 



'TIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 41 

to be as normal as any other capital. Even the 
confidence of Germany in victory impressed me 
so that in one of my first despatches I said : 

^'Germany to-day is more confident than ever 
that all efforts of her enemies to crush her must 
prove in vain. With a threefold offensive, in 
Flanders, in Galicia and in northwest Russia, be- 
ing successfully prosecuted, there was a spirit of 
enthusiasm displayed here in both mihtary and 
civilian circles that exceeded even the stirring 
days immediately following the outbreak of the 
w^ar. 

^^ Flags are flying everywhere to-day; the Im- 
perial standards of Germany and Austria pre- 
dominate, although there is a goodly showing of 
the Turkish Crescent. Bands are playing as regi- 
ment after regiment passes through the city to en- 
train for the front. Through Wilhelmstrasse the 
soldiers moved, their hats and guns decorated 
with fragrant flowers and with mothers, sisters 
and sweethearts clinging to and encouraging 
them.'' 

A few weeks before I arrived the Germans 
were excited over the shipment of arms and am- 
munitions from the United States to the Allies, 
but by the time I was in Berlin the situation 
seemed to have changed. On April 4th I tele- 
graphed the following despatch which appeared 
in the Evening Sun, New York: 



4S GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

*^Tlie spirit of animosity towards Americans 
which swept Germany a few weeks ago seems to 
have disappeared. The 1,400 Americans in Ber- 
lin and those in the smaller cities of Germany have 
little cause to complain of discourteous treatment. 
Americans just arriving in Berlin in particular 
conunent upon the friendliness of their reception. 
The Germans have been especially courteous, they 
declare, on learning of their nationality. Feel- 
ing against the United States for permitting arms 
to be shipped to the Allies still exists, but I have 
not found this feeling extensive among the Ger- 
mans. Two American doctors studying in Ger- 
man clinics declare that the wounded soldiers al- 
ways talk about ^^Amerikanische keugeP' (Amer- 
ican bullets), but it is my observation that the 
persons most outspoken against the sale of am- 
munition to the Allies by American manufactur- 
ers are the American residents of Berlin." 

Two weeks later the situation had changed con- 
siderably. On the 24th I telegraphed: ^^ Despite 
the bitter criticism of the United States by Ger- 
man newspapers for refusing to end the traffic in 
munitions, it is semi-officially explained that this 
does not represent the real views of the German 
Government. The censor has been instructed to 
permit the newspapers to express themselves 
frankly on this subject and on Secretaiy Bryan's 
reply to the von Bernstortf note, but it has been 
emphasised that their views reflect popular opin- 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 43 

ion and the editorial side of the matter and not 
the Government. 

*^The Lohal Anzeiger, following up its attack 
of yesterday, to-day says : 

** *The answer of the United States is no sur- 
prise to Germany and naturally it fails to con- 
vince Germany that a flourishing trade in muni- 
tions of war is in accord with strict neutrality. 
The German argument was based upon the prac- 
tice of international law, but the American re- 
ply was based upon the commercial advantages 
enjoyed by the ammunition shippers.' " 

April 24th was von Tirpitz day. It was the 
anniversary of the entrance of the Grand Ad- 
miral in the German Navy fifty years before, and 
the eighteenth anniversary of his debut in the 
cabinet, a record for a German Minister of Ma- 
rine. There was tremendous rejoicing through- 
out the country, and the Admiral, who spent his 
Prussian birthday at the Navy Department, was 
overwhelmed with congratulations. Headed by 
the Kaiser, telegrams came from every official in 
Germany. The press paid high tribute to his 
blockade, declaring that it was due to him alone 
that England was so terror-stricken by subma- 
rines. 

I was not in Germany very long until I was 
impressed by the remarkable control the Gov- 
ernment had on public opinion by censorship of 
the press. People believe, mthout exception, 
everything they read in the newspapers. And I 



44 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

soon discovered that the censor was so accus- 
tomed to dealing with German editors that he ap- 
plied the same standards to the foreign corre- 
spondents. A reporter conld telegraph not what 
he observed and heard, but what the censors de- 
sired American readers to hear and know about 
Germany. 

I was in St. Quentin, France (which the Ger- 
mans on their 1917 withdrawal set on fire) at the 
headquarters of General von Below, when news 
came May 8th that the Lusitania was torpedoed. 
I read the bulletins as they arrived. I heard the 
comments of the Germans who were waging war 
in an enemy country. I listened as they spoke of 
the loss of American and other women and chil- 
dren. I was amazed when I heard them say that 
a woman had no more right on the Lusitania than 
she would have on an ammunition wagon on the 
Somme. The day before I was in the first line 
trenches on the German front which crossed the 
road running from Peronne to Albert. At that 
time this battlefield, which a year and a half later 
was destined to be the scene of the greatest 
slaughter in history, was as quiet and beautiful 
as this picturesque country of northern France 
was in peace times. Only a few trenches and 
barbed wire entanglements marred the scene. 

On May 9th I left St. Quentin for Brussels. 
Here I was permitted by the General Government 
to send a despatch reflecting the views of the 
German army in France about the sinking of the 



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A BERLIN EXTRA 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 45 

Lusitania. I wrote what I thought was a fair 
article. I told how the bulletin was posted in 
front of the Hotel de Ville; how the officers and 
soldiers marching to and away from the front 
stopped, read, smiled and congratulated each 
other because the Navy was at last helping the 
Army * ^ win the war. ' ' There were no expressions 
of regret over the loss of life. These officers 
and soldiers had seen so many dead, soldiers and 
civilians, men and women, in Belgium and France 
that neither death nor murder shocked them. 

The telegram was approved by the military 
censor and forwarded to Berlin. I stayed in Bel- 
gium two days longer, went to Louvain and Liege 
and reached Berlin May 12th. The next day I 
learned at the Foreign Office that my despatch 
was stopped because it conflicted with the opin- 
ions which the German Government was sending 
officially by wireless to Washington and to the 
American newspapers. I felt that this was un- 
fair, but I was subject to the censorship and had 
no appeal. 

I did not forget this incident because it showed 
a striking difference of opinion between the army, 
which was fighting for Germany, and the Foreign 
Office, which was explaining and excusing what 
the Army and Navy did. The Army always jus- 
tified the events in Belgium, but the Foreign Of- 
fice did not. And this was the first incident which 
made me feel that even in Germany, which was 



46 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

supposed to be united, there were differences of 
opinion. 

In September, 1915, while the German army 
was moving against Russia like a surging sea, I 
was invited to go to the front near Vilna. Dur- 
ing the intervening months I had observed and 
recorded as much as possible the growing indig- 
nation in Germany because the United States per- 
mitted the shipment of arms and ammunition to 
the Allies. In June I had had an interview with 
Secretary of State von Jagow, in w^hich he pro- 
tested against the attitude of the United States 
Government and said that America was not act- 
ing as neutral as Germany did during the Span- 
ish-American war. He cited page 168 of Andrew 
D. White's book in which Ambassador White said 
he persuaded Germany not to permit a German 
ship laden with ammunition and consigned for 
Spain to sail. I thought that if Germany had 
adopted such an attitude toward America, that in 
justice to Germany Washington should adopt the 
same position. After von Jagow gave me the 
facts in possession of the Foreign Office and after 
he had loaned me Mr. White's book, I looked up 
the data. I found to my astonishment that Mr. 
White reported to the State Department that a 
ship of ammunition sailed from Hamburg, and 
that he had not protested, although the Naval 
Attache had requested him to do so. The state- 
ments of von Jagow and Mr. White 's in his auto- 
biography did not agree with the facts. Germany 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 47 

did send ammunition to Spain, but Wilhelmstrasse 
was using Mr. Whitens book as proof that the 
Krupp interests did not supply our enemy in 
1898. The latter part of September I entered 
Kovno, the important Russian fortress, eight days 
after the army captured it. I was escorted, to- 
gether with other foreign correspondents, from 
one fort to another and showTi what the 42 cm. 
guns had destroyed. I saw 400 machine guns 
which were captured and 1,300 pieces of heavy 
artillery. The night before, at a dinner party, 
the officers had argued against the United States 
because of the shipment of supplies to Russia. 
They said that if the United States had not aided 
Russia, that country would not have been able to 
resist the invaders. I did not know the facts, but 
I accepted their statements. When I was shown 
the machine guns, I examined them and discov- 
ered that every one of the 400 was made at Essen 
or Magdeburg, Germany. Of the 1,300 pieces of 
artiller}^ every cannon was made in Germany ex- 
cept a few English ship guns. Kovno was forti- 
fied by German artillery, not American. 

A few days later I entered Vilna; this time I 
was moving with the advance column. At dinner 
that night with General von Weber, the com- 
mander of the city, the subject of American arms 
and ammunition was again brought up. The Gen- 
eral said they had captured from the Russians 
an American machine gun. He added that they 
were brininno- it in from Smor^^on to show the 



48 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

AjQericans. When it reached us the stamp, writ- 
ten in English, showed that it was manufactured 
by Vickers Limited, England. Being unable to 
read English, the officer who reported the capture 
thought the gun was made in the United States. 

In Eoumania last December I followed General 
von Falkenhayn's armies to the forts of Bucha- 
rest. On Thanksgiving Day I crossed by auto- 
mobile the Schurduck Pass. The Roumanians 
had defended, or attempted to defend, this road 
by mounting armoured guns on the crest of one 
of the mountain ranges in the Transylvanian 
Alps. I examined a whole position here and 
found all turrets were made in Germany. 

I did not doubt that the shipment of arms and 
ammunition to the Allies had been a great aid to 
them. (I was told in Paris, later, on my way to 
the United States that if it had not been for the 
American ammunition factories France would 
liave been defeated long ago.) But when Ger- 
many argued that the United States was not neu- 
tral in permitting these shipments to leave Amer- 
ican ports, Germany was forgetting what her own 
^rms and munition factories had done for Ger- 
many's enemies. When the Krupp works sold 
Russia the defences for Kovno, the German Gov- 
ernment knew these weapons would be used 
against Germany some day, because no nation ex- 
cept Germany could attack Russia by way of that 
city. When Krupps sold war supplies to Rou- 
mania, the German Government knew that if Ron- 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 49 

mania joined the Allies these supplies would be 
used against German soldiers. But the Govern- 
ment was careful not to report these facts in Ger- 
man newspapers. And, although Secretary of 
State von Jagow acknowledged to Ambassador 
Gerard that there was nothing in international 
law to justify a change in Washington's position, 
von Jagow 's statements were not permitted to 
be published in Germany. 

To understand Germany's resentment over Mr. 
Wilson's interference with the submarine war- 
fare, three things must be taken into considera- 
tion. 

1. The Allies' charge that all Germans are 
**Huns and Barbarians."^ 

2. The battle of the Marne and the shipment of 
arms and ammunition from the United States. 

3. The intrigue and widening breach between 
the Army and Navy and the Foreign Office. 



One weapon the Allies used against Germany, 
which was more eifective than all others, was 
the press. When the English and French indicted 
the Germans as *' Barbarians and Huns," as ^'pi- 
rates," and ^^uncivilised" Europeans, it cut the 
Germans to the quick ; it affected men and women 
so terribly that Germans feared these attacks 
more than they did the combined military might 
of their enemies. This is readily understood when 



50 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

one realises tliat before the war the thing the 
Germans prided themselves on was their com- 
merce and their civilisation, — their Kultur. Be- 
fore the war, the world was told by every German 
what the nation had done for the poor; what 
strides the scientists had made in research work 
and what progress the business men had made in 
extending their commerce at the expense of com- 
petitors. 

While some government officials foresaw the 
disaster which wonld come to Germany if this na- 
tional vanity was paraded before the whole world, 
their advice and counsel were ignored. Consul 
General Kiliani, the Chief German official in Aus- 
tralia before the war, told me he had reported 
repeatedly to the Foreign Office that German busi- 
ness men were injuring their own opportunities 
by bragging so much of what they had done, and 
what they would do. He said if it continued the 
whole world would be leagued against Germany; 
that public opinion would be so strong against 
German goods that they would lose their markets. 
Germany made the whole world fear her com- 
mercial might by this foolish bragging. 

So when the war broke out and Germans were 
attacked for being uncivilised in Belgium, for 
breaking treaties and for disregarding the opin- 
ion of the world, it was but natural that German 
vanity should resent it. Germans feared noth- 
ing but God and public opinion. They had such 
exalted faith in their army they believed they 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 51 

could gain by Might what they had lost in pres- 
tige throughout the world. This is one of the rea- 
sons the German people arose like one man when 
war w^as declared. They wished and were ready 
to show the world that they were the greatest 
people ever created. 

n 

The German explanation of why they lost the 
battle of the Marne is interesting, not alone be- 
cause of the explanation of the defeat, but because 
it shows why the shipment of arms and ammuni- 
tion from the United States was such a poisonous 
pill to the army. Shortly after my arrival in 
Berlin Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, then Under Sec- 
retary of State, said the greatest scandal in Ger- 
many after the war would be the investigation of 
the reasons for the shortage of ammunition in 
September, 1914. He did not deny that Germany 
was prepared for a great war. He must have 
known at the time what the Director of the Post 
and Telegraph knew on the 2nd of August, 1914, 
when he w^rote Announcement No. 3. The Ger- 
man Army must have known the same thing and 
if it had prepared for war, as every German ad- 
mits it had, then preparations were made to fight 
nine nations. But there was one thing which 
Germany failed to take into consideration, Zim- 
mermann said, and that was the shipment of sup- 
plies from the United States. Then, he added, 
there were two reasons why the battle of the 



52 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Marne was lost : one, because there was not suf- 
ficient ammunition ; and, two, because the reserves 
were needed to stop the Russian invasion of East 
Prussia. I asked him whether Germany did not 
have enormous stores of ammunition on hand 
when the war began. He said there was sufficient 
ammunition for a short campaign, but that the 
Ministry of "War had not mobilised sufficient am- 
munition factories to keep up the supplies. He 
said this was the reason for the downfall of Gen- 
eral von Herringen, who was Minister of War at 
the beginning of hostilities. 

After General von Kluck was wounded and re- 
turned to his villa in Wilmersdorf, a suburb of 
Berlin, I took a walk with him in his garden and 
discussed the Marne. He confirmed what Zim- 
mermann stated about the shortage of ammuni- 
tion and added that he had to give up his re- 
serves to General von Hindenburg, who had been 
ordered by the Kaiser to drive the Russians from 
East Prussia. 

Ill 

At the very beginning of the war, although no 
intimations were permitted to reach the outside 
world, there was a bitter controversy between the 
Foreign Office, as headed by the Chancellor von 
Bethmann-Hollweg ; the Navy Department, head- 
ed by Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, and General 
von Moltke, Chief of the General Staff. The 
Chancellor delayed mobilisation of the German 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 53 

Army three daj^s. For this he never has and 
never will be forgiven by the military authorities. 
During those stirring days of July and August, 
when General von Moltke, von Tirpitz, von Fal- 
kenhayn, Krupps and the Rhine Valley Industrial 
leaders were clamouring for war and for an in- 
vasion of Belgium, the Kaiser was being urged by 
the Chancellor and the Foreign Office to heed the 
proposals of Sir Edward Grey for a Peace Con- 
ference. But the Kaiser, who was more of a sol- 
dier than a statesman, sided with his military 
friends. The war was on, not only between Ger- 
many and the Entente, but between the Foreign 
Office and the Army and Navy. This internal 
fight which began in July, 1914, became Ger- 
many's bitterest struggle ^and from time to time 
the odds went from one side to another. The 
Army accused the diplomats of blundering in 
starting the war. The Foreign Office replied that 
it was the lust for power and victory which poi- 
soned the military leaders which caused the war. 
Belgium was invaded against the counsel of the 
Foreign Office. But when the Chancellor was 
confronted with the actual invasion and the viola- 
tion of the treaty, he was compelled by force of 
circumstance, by his position and responsibility 
to the Kaiser to make his famous speech in the 
Reichstag in which he declared: ^^ Emergency 
knows no law.'' 

But when the allied fleet swept German ships 
from the high seas and isolated a nation which 



54 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

had considered its international commerce one of 
its greatest assets, considerable animosity devel- 
oped between the Army and Navy. The Army ac- 
cused the Navy of stagnation, von Tirpitz, who 
had based his whole naval policy npon a great 
navy, especially npon battleship and cruiser 
units, was confronted by his military friends with 
the charge that he was not prepared. As early as 
1908 von Tirpitz had opposed the construction of 
submarines. Speaking in the Reichstag when na- 
val appropriations were debated, he said Germany 
should rely upon a battleship fleet and not upon 
submarines. But when he saw his great inactive 
Navy in German waters, he switched to the sub- 
marine idea of a blockade of England. In Febru- 
ary, 1915, he announced his submarine blockade 
of England with the consent of the Kaiser, but 
without the approval of the Foreign Office. 

By this time the cry, *'Gott strafe England," 
had become the most popular battle shout in Ger- 
many. The von Tirpitz blockade announcement 
made this battlecry real. It made him the na- 
tional hero. The German press, which at that 
time was under three different censors, turned its 
entire support over night to the von Tirpitz plan. 
The Navy Department, which even then was not 
only anti-British but anti-American, wanted to 
sink every ship on the high seas. When the 
United States lodged its protests on February 
12th the German Navy wanted to ignore it. The 
Foreign Office was inclined to listen to President 



"PIRATES SINK NEUTRAL SHIP" 55 

Wilson's arguments. Even the people, while they 
were enthusiastic for a submarine war, did not 
want to estrange America if they could prevent it. 
The von Tirpitz press bureau, which knew that 
public opposition to its plan could be overcome 
by raising the cry that America was not neutral 
in aiding the Allies with supplies, launched an 
anti-American campaign. It came to a climax 
one night when. Ambassador Gerard was attend- 
ing a theatre party. As he entered the box he was 
recognised by a group of Germans who shouted 
insulting remarks because he spoke English. 
Then some one else remarked that America was 
not neutral by shipping arms and ammunition. 

The Foreign Office apologised the next day but 
the Navy did not. And, instead of listening to the 
advice of Secretary of State von Jagow, the Navy 
sent columns of inspired articles to the news- 
papers attacking President Wilson and telling the 
German people that the United States had joined 
the Entente in spirit if not in action. 



CHAPTER in 

THE GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BEELIN" 

AT the beginning of the war, even the Socialist 
Party in the Eeichstag voted the Govern- 
ment credits. The press and the people 
■unanimously supported the Government because 
there was a very terrorising fear that Russia was 
about to invade Germany and that England and 
France were leagued together to crush the Father- 
land. Until the question of the submarine warfare 
came up, the division of opinion which had already 
developed between the Army and Navy clique and 
the Foreign Office was not general among the peo- 
ple. Although the army had not taken Paris, a 
great part of Belgium and eight provinces of 
Northern France were occupied and the Russians 
had been driven from East Prussia. The German 
people believed they were successful. The army 
was satisfied with what it had done and had great 
plans for the future. Food and economic condi- 
tions had changed very little as compared to the 
changes which were to take place before 1917. 
Supplies were flowing into Gennany from all 
neutral European countries. Even England and 
Russia were selling goods to Germany indi- 

56 



GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN 57 

rectly through neutral countries. Considerable 
English merchandise, as well as American prod- 
ucts, came in by way of Holland because English 
business men were making money by the transac- 
tion and because the English Government had not 
yet discovered leaks in the blockade. Two-thirds 
of the butter supply in Berlin was coming from 
Russia. Denmark was sending copper. Norway 
was sending fish and valuable oils. Sweden 
was sending horses and cattle. Italy was sending 
fruit. Spanish sardines and olives were reaching 
German merchants. There was no reason to be 
dissatisfied with the way the war was going. And, 
besides, the German people hated their enemies 
so that the leaders could count upon continued 
support for almost an indefinite period. The cry 
of ^'Hun and Barbarian '^ was answered with the 
battle cry ''Gott strafe England.'^ 

The latter part of April on my first trip to the 
front I dined at Great Headquarters (Grosse 
Haupt Quartier) in Charleville, France, with 
Major Nicolai, Chief of the Intelligence Depart- 
ment of the General Staff. The next day, in com- 
pany with other correspondents, we were guests 
of General von Moehl and his staff at Peronne. 
From Peronne we went to the Somme front to 
St. Quentin, to Namur and Brussels. The sol- 
diers were enthusiastic and happy. There was 
plenty of food and considerable optimism. But 
the confidence in victoiy was never so great as it 
was immediately after the sinking of the Licsi- 



58 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

tania. That marked the crisis in the future trend 
of the war. 

Up to this time the people had heard very little 
about the fight between the Navy and the Foreign 
Office. But gradually rumours spread. While 
there was previously no outlet for public opinion, 
the Lusitania issue was debated more extensively 
and with more vigour than the White Books which 
were published to explain the causes of the war. 

With the universal feeling of self confidence, 
it was but natural that the people should side with 
the Navy in demanding an unrestricted submarine 
warfare. When Admiral von Bachmann gave the 
order to First Naval Lieutenant Otto Steinbrink 
to sink the Lusitania, he knew the Navy was ready 
to defy the United States or any other country 
which might object. He knew, too, that von Tir- 
pitz was very close to the Kaiser and could count 
upon the Kaiser's support in whatever he did. 
The Navy believed the torpedoing of the Lusi- 
tania would so frighten and terrorise the world 
that neutral shipping would become timid and 
enemy peoples would be impressed by Germany's 
might on the seas. Ambassador von Bernstorif 
had been ordered by the Foreign Office to put 
notices in the American papers warning Amer- 
icans off these ships. The Chancellor and Secre- 
tary von Jagow knew there was no way to stop 
the Admiralty, and they wanted to avoid, if pos- 
sible, the loss of American lives. 

The storm of indignation which encircled the 



GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN 59 

globe when reports were printed that over a thou- 
sand people lost their lives on the Lusitania, 
found a s^TQpathetic echo in the Berlin Foreign 
Office. ^^ Another navy blunder/' the officials said 
— confidentially. Foreign Office officials tried to 
conceal their distress because the officials knew 
the only thing they could do now was to make 
preparation for an apology and try to excuse in 
the best possible way what the navy had done. 
On the 17th of May like a thunderbolt from a clear 
sky came President Wilson's first Lusitania note. 

^^ Recalling the humane and enlightened atti- 
tude hitherto assumed by the Imperial German 
Government in matters of international life, par- 
ticularly with regard to the freedom of the seas ; 
having learned to recognise German views and 
German influence in the field of international ob- 
ligations as always engaged upon the side of jus- 
tice and humanity;'' the note read, **and having 
Understood the instructions of the Imperial Ger- 
man Government to its naval commanders to be 
upon the same plane of human action as those* 
prescribed by the naval codes of other nations, 
the government of the United States is loath to 
believe — it cannot now bring itself to believe — 
that these acts so absolutely contrary to the rules 
and practices and spirit of modern warfare could 
have the countenance or sanction of that great 
government. . . . Manifestly submarines cannot 
be used against merchantmen as the last few 



60 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

weeks have shown without an inevitable violation 
of many sacred principles of justice and human- 
ity. American citizens act within their indisput- 
able rights in taking their ships and in travelling 
wherever their legitimate business calls them 
upon the high seas, and exercise those rights in 
what should be a well justified confidence that 
their lives will not be endangered by acts done 
in clear violation of universally acknowledged 
international obligations and certainly in the con- 
fidence that their own government will sustain 
them in the exercise of their rights. ' ' 

And then the note which Mr. Gerard handed 
von Jagow concluded with these words : 

*^It (The United States) confidently expects 
therefore that the Imperial German Government 
will disavow the acts of which the United States 
complains, that they will make reparation as far 
as reparation is possible for injuries which are 
without measure, and that they will take immedi- 
ate steps to prevent the recurrence of anything 
so obviously subversive of the principles of war- 
fare, for which the Imperial German Government 
in the past so wisely and so firmly contended. 
The Government and people of the United States 
look to the Imperial German Government for just, 
prompt and enlightened action in this vital mat- 
ter. . . . Expressions of regret and offers of 
reparation in the case of neutral ships sunk by 



GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN 61 

mistake, while they may satisfy international ob- 
ligations if no loss of life results, cannot justify 
or excuse a practice, the natural necessary effect 
of which is to subject neutral nations or neutral 
persons to new and immeasurable risks. The Im- 
perial German Government will not expect the 
Government of the United States to omit any 
word, or any act, necessary to the performance 
of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the 
United States and its citizens, and of safeguard- 
ing their free exercise and enjoyment/' 

Never in history had a neutral nation indicted 
another as the United States did Germany in its 
first Lusitania note without immediately going to 
war. Because the Foreign Office feared the reac- 
tion it might have upon the people, the news- 
papers were not permitted to publish the text 
until the press bureaus of the Navy and the For- 
eign Office had mobilised the editorial writers and 
planned a publicity campaign to follow the note 's 
publication. But the Navy and Foreign Office 
could not agree on what should be done. The 
Navy wanted to ignore Wilson. Naval officers 
laughed at President Wilson's impertinence and 
when the Foreign Office sent to the Admiralty for 
all data in possession of the Navy Department 
regarding the sinking of the Lusitania the Navy 
refused to acknowledge the request. 

During this time I was in constant touch with 
the Foreign Office and the American Embassy. 



62 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Frequently I went to the Navy Department but 
was always told they had nothing to say. When 
it appeared, however, that there might be a break 
in diplomatic relations over the Liisitania the 
Kaiser called the Chancellor to Great Headquar- 
ters for a conference. Meanwhile Germany de- 
layed her reply to the American note because the 
Navy and Foreign Office were still at loggerheads. 
On the 31st of May von Jagow permitted me to 
quote him in an interview saying : 

** America can hardly expect us to give up any 
means at our disposal to fight our enemy. It is a 
principle with us to defend ourselves in every 
possible way. I am sure that Americans will be 
reasonable enough to believe that our two coun- 
tries cannot discuss the Lusitania matter until 
both have the same basis of facts/' 

The American people were demanding an an- 
swer from Germany and because the two branches 
of the Government could not agree on what should 
be said von Jagow had to do something to gain 
time. Germany, therefore, submitted in her reply 
of the 28th of May certain facts about the Lv^i- 
tania for the consideration of the American Gov- 
ernment saying that Germany reserved final 
statements of its position with regard *^to the de- 
mands made in connection with the sinking of the 
Lusitania until a reply was received from the 
American Government. ' ' AJPter the note was des- 
patched the chasm between the Navy and Foreign 



GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN 63 

Office was wider than ever. Ambassador Gerard, 
who went to the Foreign Office daily, to try to 
convince the officials that they were antagonising 
the whole world by their attitude on the Lusitania 
question, returned to the Embassy one day after 
a conference with Zimmermann and began to pre- 
pare a scrap book of cartoons and clippings from 
American newspapers. Two secretaries were put 
to work pasting the comments, interviews, edi- 
torials and cartoons reflecting American opinion 
in the scrap book. Although the German Foreign 
Office had a big press department its efforts 
were devoted more to furnishing the outside world 
with German views than with collecting outside 
opinions for the information of the German Gov- 
ernment. Believing that -this information would 
be of immeasurable benefit to the German diplo- 
mats in sounding the depths of public sentiment 
in America, Gerard delivered the book to von 
Jagow personally. 

In the meantime numerous conferences were 
held at Great Headquarters. Financiers, business 
men and diplomats who wanted to keep peace with 
America sided with the Foreign Office. Every 
anti-American influence in the Central Powers 
joined forces with the Navy. The Lusitania note 
was printed and the public discussion which re- 
sulted was greater than that wliich followed the 
first declarations of war in August, 1914. The 
people, who before had accepted everything their 
Government said, began to think for themselves. 



64 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

One heard almost as much criticism as praise of 
the Lusitania incident. For the first time the 
quarrel, which had been nourished between the 
Foreign Office and the Admiralty, became nation- 
wide and forces throughout Germany lined up 
with one side or the other. But the Navy Depart- 
ment was the cleverer of the two. The press 
bureau sent out inspired stories that the subma- 
rines were causing England a loss of a million 
dollars a week. They said that every week the 
Admiralty was launching two U-boats. It was 
stated that reliable reports to Admiral von Tir- 
pitz proved the high toll taken by the submarines 
in two weeks had struck terror to the hearts of 
English ship-owners. The newspapers printed 
under great headlines: **Toll of Our Tireless 
U-Boats,'' the names and tonnage of ships lost. 
The press bureau pointed to the rise in food 
prices in Great Britain and France. The public 
was made to feel a personal pride in submarine 
exploits. And at the same time the Navy editorial 
writers brought up the old issue of American 
arms and ammunition to further embitter the 
people. 

Thus the fiirst note which President Wilson 
wrote in the Lusitania case not only brought the 
quarrel between the Navy and Foreign Office to a 
climax but it gave the German people the first 
opportunity they had had seriously to discuss 
questions of policy and right. 

In the Rhine Valley, where the ammunition in- 



GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN 65 

terests dominated every phase of life, the Navy 
found its staunchest supporters. In educational 
circles, in shipping centres, such as Hamburg and 
Bremen, in the financial districts of Frankfort 
and Berlin, the Foreign Office received its sup- 
port. Press and Reichstag were divided. Sup- 
porting the Foreign Office were the Lokal An- 
zeigevj the Berliner Tagehlatt, the Cologne Ga- 
zette, the Frankforter Zeitnng, the Hamburger 
Fremdemhlatt, and the Vorwdrts. 

The Navy had the support of Count Reventlow, 
Naval Critic of the Deutsche Tageszeitung, the 
TdgliscJie Rundschaii, the VossiscJie Zeitung, the 
Morgen Post, the B. Z, Am Mittag, the Munchener 
Neueste Nachrichten, the Rheinische Westfdlische 
Zeitung, and the leading Catholic organ, the Koel- 
nische Volks-Zeitung. 

Government officials were also divided. Chan- 
cellor von Bethmann-Hollweg led the party which 
demanded an agreement with the United States. 
He was supported by von Jagow, Zimmermann, 
Dr. Karl Helfferich, Secretary of the Treasury; 
Dr. Solf, the Colonial Minister; Dr. Siegfried 
Heckscher, Vice Chairman of the Reichstag Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations ; and Philip Sclieide- 
mann, leader of the majority of the Socialists in 
the Reichstag. 

The opposition was led by Grand Admiral von 
Tirpitz. He was supported by General von Falk- 
enhayn, Field Marshal von Mackensen and all 
army generals ; Admirals von Pohl and von Bach- 



66 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

mann; Major Bassermann, leader of the National 
Liberal Party in the Reichstag; Dr. Gustav Stres- 
semann, member of the Reichstag and Director of 
the North German Lloyd Steamship Company; 
and von Heydebrand, the so-called ''Uncrowned 
King of Prussia/' because of his control of the 
Prussian Diet. 

With these forces against each other the in- 
ternal 'Q-gh.t continued more bitter than ever. 
President Wilson kept insisting upon definite 
promises from Germany but the Admiralty still 
had the upper hand. There was nothing for the 
Foreign Office to do except to make the best pos- 
sible excuses and depend upon Wilson's patience 
to give them time to get into the saddle. The 
Navy Department, however, was so confident that 
it had the Kaiser's support in everything it did, 
that one of the submarines was instructed to sink 
the Arabic. 

President Wilson's note in the Arabic case 
again brought the submarine dispute within Ger- 
many to a head. Conferences were again held 
at Great Headquarters. The Chancellor, von Ja- 
gow, Helfferich, von Tirpitz and other leaders 
were summoned by the Kaiser. On the 28th of 
August I succeeded in sending by courier to The 
Hague the following despatch: 

*'With the support of the Kaiser, the German 
Chancellor, Dr. von Betlunann-Hollweg, is ex- 
pected to win the fight he is now making for a 



GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN 67 

modification of Germany's submarine warfare 
that will forever settle the difi&culties with America 
over the sinking of the Lusitania and the Arabic. 
Both the Chancellor and von Jagow are most 
anxious to end at once and for all time the con- 
troversies with Washington desiring America's 
friendship. (Published in the Chicago Tribune, 
August 29th, 1915.) 

**The Marine Department, headed by von Tir- 
pitz, creator of the submarine policy, will oppose 
any disavowal of the action of German's subma- 
rines. But the Kaiser is expected to approve the 
steps the Chancellor and Foreign Secretary con- 
template taking, swinging the balance in favour 
of von Bethmann-Hollweg's contention that ships 
in the future must be warned before they are tor- 
pedoed." 

One day I went to the Foreign Office and told 
one of the officials I believed that if the American 
people knew what a difficult time the Foreign Of- 
fice was having in trying to win out over the Ad- 
miralty that public opinion in the United States 
might be mobilised to help the Foreign Office 
against the Admiralty. I took with me a brief 
despatch which I asked him to pass. He censored 
it with the understanding that I would never dis- 
close his name in case the despatch was read in 
Germany. 

A few days later the Manchester, England, 



68 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Guardimi arrived containing my article, headed as 
follows : 

HOLLWEG'S CHANGE OF TUNE 

Respect for Scraps of Paper 

LAW AT SEA 

Insists on Warning by Submarines 

TIRPITZ PARTY BEATEN 

Kaiser Expected to Approve New Policy 

^*New York, Sunday. 

'^Cables from Mr. Carl W. Ackerman, Berlin 

correspondent of the United Press published 

here, indicate that the real crisis following the 

Arabic is in Germany, not America. He writes: 

^^The Berlin Foreign Office is unalterably op- 
posed to submarine activity, such as evidenced 
by the Arabic affair, and it was on the initiative 
of this Government department that immediate 
steps were taken with Mr. Gerard the American 
Ambassador. The nature of these negotiations 
is still unknown to the German public. 

^*It is stated on the highest authority that Herr 
von Jagow, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and 
Chancellor von Bethmann-HoUweg are unanimous 



GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN 69 

in their anxiety to settle American difficulties 
once and for all, retaining the friendship of the 
United States in any event. 

^^The Kaiser is expected to approve the course 
suggested by the Imperial Chancellor, despite 
open opposition to any disavowal of submarine 
activities which constantly emanates from the 
German Admiralty. 

^^The Chancellor is extremely desirous of plac- 
ing Germany on record as an observer of inter- 
national law as regards sea warfare, and in this 
case will win his demand that submarines in the 
future shall thoroughly warn enemy ships before 
firing their torpedoes or shells. 

^^ There is considerable discussion in ofiScial 
circles as to whether the Chancellor's steps cre- 
ate a precedent, but it is agreed that it will prob- 
ably close all complications with America, includ- 
ing the Lusitania case, which remained unsettled 
following President Wilson's last note to Ger- 
many. 

'^Thus if the United States approves the pres- 
ent attitude of the Chancellor this step will aid in 
clearing the entire situation and will materially 
strengthen the policy of von Bethmann-Hollweg 
and von Jagow, which is a deep desire for peace 
with America.'' 

After this despatch was printed I was called 
to the home of Frau von Schroeder, the Ameri- 
can-born wife of one of the Intelligence Office of 



70 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

the General Staff. Captain Vanselow, Chief of 
the Admiralty Intelligence Department, was there 
and had brought with him the Manchester Guar- 
dian, He asked me where I got the information 
and who had passed the despatch. He said the 
Navy was np in arms and had issued orders to 
the General Telegraph Ofi&ce that, inasmuch as 
Germany was under martial law, no telegrams 
were to be passed containing the words subma- 
rines, navy, admiralty or marine or any officers 
of the Navy without having them referred to the 
Admiralty for a second censoring. This order 
practically nullified the censorship powers of the 
Foreign Office. I saw that the Navy Department 
was again in the saddle and that the efforts of the 
Chancellor to maintain peace might not be suc- 
cessful after all. But the conferences at Great 
Headquarters lasted longer than any one ex- 
pected. The first news we received of what had 
taken place was that Secretary von Jagow had 
informed the Kaiser he would resign before he 
would do anything which might cause trouble with 
the United States. 

Germany was split wide open by the submarine 
issue. For a while it looked as if the only pos- 
sible adjustment would be either for von Tirpitz 
to go and his policies with him, or for von Jagow 
and the Chancellor to go with the corresponding 
danger of a rupture with America. But von Tir- 
pitz would not resign. He left Great Headquar- 
ters for Berlin and intimated to his friends that 



GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN 71 

lie was going to run the Navy to suit himself. 
But the Chancellor who had the support of the 
big shipping interests and the financiers, saw a 
possible means of checkmating von Tirpitz by 
forcing Admiral von Pohl to resign as Chief of 
the Admiralty Staff. They finally persuaded the 
Kaiser to accept his resignation and appoint Ad- 
miral von Holtzendorff as' his successor. Von 
Holtzendorff 's brother was a director of the Ham- 
burg-American Line and an intimate friend of 
A. Ballin, the General Director of the company. 
The Chancellor believed that by having a friend 
of his as Chief of the Admiralty Staff, no orders 
would be issued to submarine commanders con- 
trary to the wishes of the Chancellor, because ac- 
cording to the rules of the German Navy Depart- 
ment the Chief of the Admiralty Staff must ap- 
prove all naval plans and sign all orders to fleet 
commanders. 

Throughout this time the one thing which 
frightened the Foreign Office was the fear that 
President Wilson might break off diplomatic re- 
lations before the Foreign Office had an oppor- 
tunity to settle the differences with the United 
States. For this reason Ambassador Gerard was 
kept advised by Wilhelmstrasse of the internal 
developments in Germany and asked to report 
them fully but confidentially to Wilson. So, dur- 
ing this crisis when Americans were demanding 
a break with Germany because of Germany's con- 
tinued defiance of President Wilson's notes, the 



72 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

American Government knew that if the Foreign 
Office was given more time it had a good chance 
of succeeding in cleaning honse. A rupture at 
that time would have destroyed all the efforts of 
the Foreign Office to keep the German military 
machine within bounds. It would have over- 
thrown von Jagow and von Bethmann-Hollweg 
and put in von Tirpitz as Chancellor and von Hey- 
debrand, the reactionary leader of the Prussian 
Diet, as Secretary of State. At that time, all the 
democratic forces of Germany were lined up with 
the Foreign Office. The people who blushed for 
Belgium, the financiers who were losing money, 
the shipping interests whose tonnage was locked 
in belligerent or neutral harbours, the Socialists 
and people who were anxious and praying for 
peace, were looking to the Foreign Office and to 
"Washington to avoid a break. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 

WHILE Germany was professing her 
friendship for the United States in every 
note written following the sinking of the 
Lusitania, the government was secretly preparing 
the nation for a break in diplomatic relations, or 
for war, in the event of a rupture. German offi- 
cials realised that unless the people were made 
to suspect Mr. Wilson and his motives, unless 
they were made to resent the shipment of arms 
and ammunition to the Allies, there would be a 
division in public opinion and the government 
would not be able to count upon the united sup- 
port of the people. Because the government does 
the thinking for the people it has to tell them 
what to think before they have reached the point 
of debating an issue themselves. A war with 
America or a break in diplomatic relations in 
1915 would not have been an easy matter to ex- 
plain, if the people had not been encouraged to 
hate Wilson. So while Germany maintained a 
propaganda bureau in America to interpret Ger- 
many and to maintain good relations, she started 
in Germany an extensive propaganda against 

73 



74 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Wilson, the American press, tlie United States 
Ambassador and Americans in general. 

This step was not necessary in the army be- 
cause among army officers the bitterness and 
hatred of the United States were deeper and more 
extensive than the hatred of any other belligerent. 
It was hardly ever possible for the American cor- 
respondents to go to the front without being in- 
sulted. Even the American military attaches, 
when they went to the front, had to submit to the 
insults of army officers. After the sinking of the 
Arabic the six military observers attached to the 
American Embassy were invited by the General 
Staff to go to Russia to study the military opera- 
tions of Field Marshal von Mackensen. They 
were escorted by Baron von Maltzahn, former 
attache of the German Embassy in Paris. At 
Lodz, one of the largest cities in Poland, they 
were taken to headquarters. Von Maltzahn, who 
knew Mackensen personally, called at the Field 
MarshaPs offices, reported that he had escorted 
six American army officers under orders of the 
General Staif, whom he desired to present to the 
Commander-in-Chief. Von Mackensen replied 
that he did not care to meet the Americans and 
told von Maltzahn that the best thing he could do 
would be to escort the observers back to Berlin. 

As soon as the military attaches reached Ber- 
lin and reported this to Washington they were 
recalled. 

But this was not the only time von Mackensen, 



BLOOD-TRAFFICKERS 

Cowards, who kill three thousand miles away, 
See the long linos of shrouded forms increase ! 
Yours is this work, disguise it as you may ; 
But for your greed the world were now at peace. 

Month after month your countless chimneys roar, — 
Slaughter your object, and your motive gain ; 
Look at your money, — it is wet with gore ! 
Nothing can cleanse it from the loathsome stain. 

You. who prolong this hideous hell on earth. 
Making a by-word of your native land, 
stripped of your wealth, how paltry is your worth ! 
See how men shrink from contact with your hand ! 

There is pollution in your blood-smeared gold, 
There is corruption in your pact with Death, 
There is dishonor in the lie, oft-told. 
Of your "Humanity" ! 'Tis empty breath. 

What shall it profit you to heap on high, 
Makers of orphans ! a few millions more, 
"When you must face them — those you caused to die, 
And God demands of you to pay your score? 

He is not mocked ; His vengeance doth not sleep ; 
His cup of wrath He lets yoa slowly fill ; 
What you have sown, that also shall you reap ; 
God's law is adamant, — ''Thou shalt not kill" ! 

Think not to plead : — "I did not act alone," 
"Custom allows it," and "My dead were few" ; 
Each hath his quota ; yonder are your own ! 
See how their fleshless fingers point at you, at you ! 

You, to whose vaults this wholesale murder yields 

Mere needless increments of ghoulish gain. 

Count up your corpses on these blood-soaked fields ! 

Hear . . . till your death . . . your victims' moans of pain ! 

Then, when at night you, sleepless, fear to pray. 
Watch the thick, crimson stream draw near your bed, 
And shriek with horror, till the dawn of day 
Shall find you raving at your heaps of dead ! 

JOHN L. STODDARD. 



The League of Truth 

Head Offices for Germany : 

Berlin W 

40 Potsdamer Str. 

July 4th, 1916. Printed by Barthe & Co., Berlin W. 



76 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

or other army officers, showed their contempt for 
the United States. After the fall of Warsaw a 
group of American correspondents were asked to 
go to the headquarters of General von Besseler, 
afterward named Governor General of Poland. 
The general received them in the gardens of the 
Polish castle which he had seized as his head- 
quarters; shook hands with the Dutch, Danish, 
Swedish, Swiss and South American newspaper 
men, and then, before turning on his heels to go 
back to his Polish palace, turned to the Ameri- 
cans and said: 

^*As for you gentlemen, the best thing you can 
do is to tell your country to stop shipping arms 
and ammunition." 

During General Brusiloff's o:ffensive I was in- 
vited together with other correspondents to go to 
the "Wohlynian battlefields to see how the Ger- 
mans had reorganised the Austrian front. In a 
little town near the Stochod River we were in- 
vited to dinner by Colonel von Luck. I sat op- 
posite the colonel, who was in charge of the re- 
organisation here. Throughout the meal he made 
so many insulting remarks that the officer who 
was our escort had to change the trend of the con- 
versation. Before he did so the colonel said : 

^^Tell me, do they insult you in Berlin like 
thisr' 

I replied that I seldom encountered such an- 
tagonism in Berlin; that it was chiefly the army 
which was anti- American. 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 77 

^^Well, that's the difference between the diplo- 
mats and the army. If the army was running the 
government we would probably have had war 
with America a long time ago/' he concluded, 
smiling sarcastically. 

Shortly after the sinking of the Ltisitania the 
naval propaganda bureau had bronze medals cast 
and placed on sale at souvenir shops throughout 
Germany. Ambassador Gerard received one day, 
in exchanging some money, a fifty mark bill, with 
the words stamped in purple ink across the face : 
*^God punish England and America.'' For some 
weeks this rubber stamp was used very effec- 
tively. 

The Navy Department realised, too, that an- 
other way to attack America and especially Amer- 
icans in Berlin, was to arouse the suspicion that 
every one who spoke English was an enemy. The 
result was that most Americans had to be ex- 
ceedingly careful not to talk aloud in public 
places. The American correspondents were even 
warned at the General Staff not to speak English 
at the front. Some of the correspondents who 
did not speak German were not taken to the battle 
areas because the Foreign Office desired to avoid 
insults. 

The year and a half between the sinking of the 
Lusitania and the severance of diplomatic rela- 
tions was a period of terror for most Americans 
in Germany. Only those who were so sympa- 
thetic with Gei-many that they were anti-Ameri- 



78 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

can found it pleasant to live there. One day one 
of the American girls employed in the confiden- 
tial file room of the American Embassy was 
slapped in the face until she cried, by a German 
in civilian clothes, because she was speaking Eng- 
lish in the subway. At another time the wife of 
a prominent American business man was spit 
upon and chased out of a public bus because she 
was speaking English. Then a group of women 
chased her down the street. Another American 
woman was stabbed by a soldier when she was 
walking on Friedrichstrasse with a friend be- 
cause she was speaking English. When the State 
Department instructed Ambassador Gerard to 
bring the matter to the attention of the Foreign 
OfSce and to demand an apology Wilhelmstrasse 
referred the matter to the General Staff for in- 
vestigation. The soldier was arrested and se- 
cretly examined. After many weeks had elapsed 
the Foreign Office explained that the man who 
had stabbed the woman was really not a soldier 
but a red cross worker. It was explained that 
he had been wounded and was not responsible for 
what he did. The testimony of the woman, how- 
ever, and of other witnesses, showed that the man 
at the time he attacked the American was dressed 
in a soldier's uniform, which is grey, and which 
could not be mistaken for the black uniform of a 
red cross worker. 

It was often said in Berlin, '^Germany hates 
England, fights France, fears Russia but loathes 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 79 

America." No one, not even American officials, 
questioned it. 

The hate campaign was bearing fruit. 

In January, 1916, there appeared in Berlin a 
publication called Light and Truth. It was a 
twelve-page circular in English and German at- 
tacking President Wilson and the United States. 
Copies were sent by mail to all Americans and to 
hundreds of thousands of Germans. It was ed- 
ited and distributed by ^^Tlie League of TrutK" 
It was the most sensational document printed in 
Germany since the beginning of the war against 
a power with which Germany was supposed to be 
at peace. Page 6 contained two illustrations un- 
der the legend : 

WILSON AND HIS PRESS IS NOT AMERICA 

Underneath was this paragraph: 

^^An American Demonstration — On the 27th of 
January, the birthday of the German Emperor, 
an immense laurel wreath decorated with the 
German and American flags was placed by Amer- 
icans at the foot of the monument to Frederick 
the Great (in Berlin). The American flag was 
enshrouded in black crape. Frederick the Great 
was the first to recognise the independence of the 
young Republic, after it had won its freedom 
from the yoke of England, at the price of its very 
hearths blood through years of struggle. His 
successor, Wilhelm II, receives the gratitude of 



80 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

America in the form of hypocritical phrases and 
war supplies to his mortal enemy.'* 

One photograph Avas of the wreath itself. The 
other showed a group of thirty-six people, mostly 
boys, standing in front of the statue after the 
wreath had been placed. 

When ALmbassador Gerard learned about the 
'^demonstration'' he went to the statue and from 
there immediately to the Foreign Office, where he 
saw Secretary of State von Jagow. Gerard de- 
manded instantaneous removal of the wreath. 
Von Jagow promised an 'investigation." Ger- 
ard meanwhile began a personal investigation of 
the League of Truths which had purchased and 
placed the insult there. 

Days, weeks, even months passed. Yon Jagow 
still refused to have the wreath removed. Finally 
Gerard went to the Foreign Office and told von 
Jagow that unless it was taken away that day he 
would get it himself and send it by courier to 
Washington. That evening Gerard walked to the 
statue. The wreath had disappeared. 

Week by week the league continued its propa- 
ganda. Gerard continued his investigation. 

July 4, 1916, another circular was scattered 
broadcast. On page 1 was a large black cross. 
Pages 2 and 3, the inside, contained a reprint of 
the ''Declaration of Independence," with the im- 
print across the face of a bloody hand. Enclosed 
in a heavy black border on page 4 were nine 



it 



'Der Q3indeftrid) 



jy 



LIGHT 



THE LEAGUE OF TRUTH 

Head Officer for OcrmariN 
BERLIN W 
48. Polsdamcr SI. 

Tclrphonr Kuilutsl5IW 




AND 



TRUTH 



'^rieltbund dcr 2Dabrl)cit6freuiide 

3cntral|lcllc fur Pcutfcbland : 

S e r I i n 2D 

Polsdamec Str. 48 
:?«cnfpr«(iicr KuttiJcfl 51M 

rdtjcumin-nnjdiriitTOtihihdiobunJ-'Sdlici 



flusgabe Nr. 2 



Mitteilungen 



April 1916 



d e s 



Wahrheitsbundes 

Read, then help! miiiii | iiiiiiii Cefen, bann t)elf(n! miiiii 



THE LEAGUE OE TRUTH. 

A S o c i e I Y 
for DeslroYing inlernaliona! Falsehood. 

Without any blare of trumpets, but in that 
quiet and seclusion whidi gives birth to all signifi- 
cant enterprises, a league was formed a year 
ago in Germany Its motto is "For Light and 
Truth" The League now steps forth into the 
light ol day in order to continue its aclivilies in 
a more official manner 

The "League of Truth" whose Head Offices 
for Germany are located at 46. Potsdamer-Slrabe, 
Berlin W , is able to glance back over a series 
of splendid results, of which more will be heard 
later on. 

In order thai still wider circles may interest 
themselves in the ideas and aclivities of this 
private educational service maintained on true 



© e r QD a b r I) e 1 1 6 b u n d . 

€inc Q.")erciniciunc) 
5ur llerniditung intcrnationolcr 'J«il(d)heit 

Obnc Quffjcbena, roic grofec Singe co trfordtrn, 
murde oor fiber cincm Jabr tin 'Sund gcgrOridct, dtr mm 
untcr dcr Parole „5ur Cict)t und ■JUabrbcit" in dit 
6ffcntlid)Fcit trm, urn ofhjicll fcinc nufndrungetdcigfcit 
fortiiufcQcn. 

5)cr „OTcli:bund dcr OTabrhcitsfrcundc", 3tntralt 
fur J>cutfcbland : licrlin 'Jll. , Polodamcr Strafe 4S 
tonn bcrcito ouf cine Tveibc oon Crfolqcn, ubcr die 
(pater nod) ju redcn fcin roird, )urii(fbli(fen. 

•Jim nun itieite Kreife fur die 3dee und TatigFtit 
dicieo prioatcn, ubernationalcn Qufflarungsdicnitca <u 
intcrcil'icren , gab dcr 'Jl'labrbcitobund dem aud) Qu«' 
lander, inobefondcrc Omcrifancr angeboren, (eincn crittn 



FIRST PAGE OF THt MAGAZINU LIGHT AND TRUTH 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 81 

verses by John L. Stoddard, the lecturer, entitled 
^'Blood-Traffickers." (Printed in the beginning 
of this chapter.) 

The league made an especial appeal to the 
^'German- Americans." Germany, as was pointed 
out in a previous article, counts upon some Ger- 
man-Americans as her allies. One day Ambassa- 
dor Gerard received a circular entitled *'An Ap- 
peal to All Friends of Truth." The same was 
sent in German and English to a mailing list of 
many hundred thousands. Excerpts from this 
read : 

*'If any one is called upon to raise his voice in 
foreign lands for the cau^e of truth, it is the for- 
eigner who was able to witness the unanimous 
rising of the German people at the outbreak of 
war, and their attitude during its continuance. 
This applies especially to the German-Ainerican. 

^^ As a citizen of two continents, in proportion 
as his character has remained true to German 
principles, he finds both here and there the right 
word to say. . . . 

'^Numberless millions of men are forced to look 
upon a loathsome spectacle. It is that of certain 
individuals in America, to whom a great nation 
has temporarily intrusted its weal and woe, sup- 
porting a few multi-millionaires and their depen- 
dents, setting at naught — unpunished — the re- 
vered document of the Fourth of July, 1776, and 
daring to barter away the birthright of the ivhite 



82 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

race. . . . We want to see whether the united 
voices of Germans and foreigners have not more 
weight than the hired writers of editorials in the 
newspapers ; and whether the words of men who 
are independent will not render it impossible for 
a subsidised press to continue its destructive 
work. ' ' 

Gerard's investigation showed that a group of 
German- Americans in Berlin were financing the 
League of Truth; that a man named William 
F. Marten, who posed as an American, was the 
head, and that the editors and writers of the pub- 
lication Light and Truth were being assisted 
by the Foreign Office Press Bureau and protected 
by the General Staff. An American dentist in 
Berlin, Dr. Charles Mueller, was chairman of the 
league. Mrs. Annie Neumann-Hofer, the Ameri- 
can-born wife of Neumann-Hofer, of the Reichs- 
tag, was secretary. Gerard reported other names 
to the State Department, and asked authority to 
take away the passports of Americans who were 
assisting the German government in this propa- 
ganda. 

The ^^ league'' heard about the Ambassador's 
efforts, and announced that a ^'Big Bertha" issue 
would be published exposing Gerard. For sev- 
eral months the propagandists worked to collect 
data. One day Gerard decided to go to the 
league's offices and look at the people who were 
directing it. In the course of his remarks the 
Ambassador said that if the Foreign Office didn't 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 83 

do sometliing to suppress the league immediately, 
lie would burn down the place. The next day 
Marten and his co-workers went to the Royal Ad- 
ministration of the Superior Court, No. 1, in Ber- 
lin, and through his attorney lodged a criminal 
charge of * threat of arson '* against the Ambas- 
sador. 

The next day Germany was flooded with letters 
from ''The League of Truth, '^ saying: 

''The undersigned committee of the League of 
Truth to their deepest regret felt compelled to 
inform the members that Ambassador Gerard had 
become involved in a criminal charge involving 
threat of arson. . . . All American citizens are 
now asked whether an Ambassador who acts so 
undignified at the moment of a formal threat of 
a wholly unnecessary war, is to be considered 
worthy further to represent a country like the 
United States." 

Were it not for the fact that at this time Presi- 
dent Wilson was trying to impress upon Germany 
the seriousness of her continued disregard of 
American and neutral lives on the high seas, the 
whole thing would have been too absurd to notice. 
But Germany wanted to create the impression 
among her people that President Wilson was not 
speaking for America, and that the Ambassador 
was too insignificant to notice. 

After this incident Gerard called upon von Ja- 



84 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

gow again and demanded tlie immediate suppres- 
sion of the third nnmber of Light and Truth, 
Before von Jagow consented Mrs. Nenmann- 
Hofer turned upon her former propagandists and 
confessed. I believe her confession is in the State 
Department, but this is what she told me : 

* ^ Marten is a German and has never been called 
to the army because the General Staff has dele- 
gated him to direct this anti-American propa- 
ganda. [We were talking at the Embassy the day 
before the Ambassador left.] Marten is sup- 
ported by some very high officials. He has letters 
of congratulations from the Chancellor, General 
von Falkenhayn, Count Zeppelin and others for 
one of his propaganda books entitled ^German 
Barbarians.' I think the Crown Prince is one of 
his backers, but I have never been able to prove 
it." 

On July 4th, 1915, the League of Truth is- 
sued what it called ^^A New Declaration of Inde- 
pendence." This was circulated in German and 
English throughout the country. It was as fol- 
lows: 

The League of Truth, however, was but one 
branch of the intricate propaganda system. 
"While it was financed almost entirely by German- 
Americans living in Germany who retained their 
American passports to keep themselves, or their 
children, out of the army, all publications for this 



A NEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

Seven score years have elapsed since those great words were forged that welded us into a 
nation upon many liery battlefields. 

In that day the strong voices of strong men rang across the world, their molten words 
flamed with light and their arms broke the visible chains of an intolerable bondage. 

But now in the red reflex of the glare cast from the battlefields of Europe, the invisible 
manacles that have been cunningly laid upon our freedom have become shamefully apparent. 
They rattle in the ears of the world. 

Our liberty has vanished once again. Yet our ancient enemy remains en- 
throned in high places within our land and in insolent ships before our gates. We 
hav« not only become Colonials once again, but subjects, — for true subjects are 
known by th©- measure of their willing subjection. 

We Americans in the heart of this heroic nation now struggling for all that we ourselves 
hold dear, but against odds such as we were never forced to face, perceive this truth with a 
disheartening but unclouded vision. 

Far from home we would to-day celebrate, as usual, the birthday of our land. But with 
heavy hearts we see that this would now seem like a hollow mockery of something solemn and 
Immemorial, it were more in keeping with reality that we burnt incense upon the altars of the 
British Baal. 

Independence Day without Independence! The liberty of the seas denied us for the peaceful 
commerce of our entire land and granted us only for the murderous trafficking of a few men! 

Independence Day has dawned for us in alien yet friendly land It has brought to us at least 
the independence of our minds. 

Free from the abominations of the most dastardly campaign of falsehood that ever dis- 
graced those who began and those who believe it, we have stripped ourselves of the rags of 
many perilous illusions. We see America as a" whole, and we see it with a fatal and terrible 
clarity. 

We see that once again our liberties of thought, of speech, of intercourse, of 
trade, are threatened, nay, already seized by the one ancient enemy that can never 
be our friend. 

With humiliation we behold our principles, our sense of justice trodden underfoot. We 
see the wild straining of the felon arms that would drag our land into the abyss of the giant 
Conspiracy and Crime. 

We see the foul alliance of gold, murderous iron and debauched paper to which we have 
been sold. 

We know that our pretenses and ambitions as heralds of peace are monstrous, so long as 
we profit through war and human agony. 

We see these rivers of blood that have their source in our mills of slaughter. 

The Day of Independence has dawned. 

It is a solemn and momentous hour for America. 

It is a day on which our people must speak with clear and inexorable voice, 
or sit silent in shame. 

It is the great hour in which we dare not celebrate our first Declaration of 
Independence, because the time has come when we must proclaim a new one over 
the corpse of that which has perished. 

Berlin, July 4 th, 1915. 



AN ANTI-AMEEICAN PROPAGANDA DOCrMENT 



86 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

bureau were approved by tlie Foreign Office cen- 
sors. Germans, connected mth the organisation, 
were under direction of the General Staff or 
Navy. 

In order to have the propaganda really success- 
ful some seeds of discontent had to be sown in the 
United States, in South America and Mexico as 
well as in Spain and other European neutral 
countries. For this outside propaganda, money 
and an organisation were needed. The Krupp 
ammunition interests supplied the money and the 
Foreign Office the organisation. 

For nearly two years the American press regu- 
larly printed despatches from the Overseas News 
Agency. Some believed they were ** official." 
This was only half true. The Krupps had been 
financing this news association. The government 
had given its support and the two wireless towers 
at Sayville, Long Island, and Tuckerton, N. J., 
were used as * ^footholds" on American soil. 
These stations were just as much a part of the 
Krupp works as the factories at Essen or the 
shipyards of Kiel. They were to disseminate the 
Krupp-fed, Krupp-owned, Krupp-controlled news 
of the Overseas News Agency. 

When the Overseas despatches first reached the 
United States the newspapers printed them in a 
spirit of fairness. They gave the other side, and 
in the beginning they were more or less accurate. 
But when international relations between the two 
countries became critical the news began to be 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 87 

distorted in Berlin. At each crisis, as at the time 
of the sinking of the Arabic, the Ancona, the Sus- 
sex and other ships, the German censorship pre- 
vented the American correspondents from send- 
ing the news as they gathered it in Germany and 
substituted ^^news" which the Krupp interests 
and the Imperial Foreign Office desired the Amer- 
ican people to believe. December, 1916, when the 
German General Staff began to plan for an unre- 
stricted submarine warfare, especial use was 
made of the ^'Overseas News Agency'' to work up 
sentiment here against President Wilson. Des- 
perate efforts were made to keep the United 
States from breaking diplomatic relations. In 
December and January last records of the news 
despatches in the American newspapers from 
Berlin show that the Overseas agency was more 
active than all American correspondents in Ber- 
lin. Secretary of State Zimmermann, Under- 
Secretaries von dem Busche and von Stumm gave 
frequent interviews to the so-called ^^representa- 
tives of the Overseas News Agency." It was all 
part of a specific Krupp plan, supported by the 
Hamburg- American and the North German Lloyd 
steamship companies, to divide opinion in the 
United States so that President Wilson would 
not be supported if he broke diplomatic relations. 
Germany, as I have pointed out, has been con- 
ducting a two-faced propaganda. While working 
in the United States through her agents and re- 
servists to create the impression that Germany 



88 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

was friendly, the Government laboured to prepare 
the German people for war. The policy was to 
make the American people believe Germany 
would never do anything to bring the United 
States into the war, but to convince the German 
public that America was not neutral and that 
President Wilson was scheming against the Ger- 
man race. Germany was Janus-headed. Head 
No. 1 said: 

** America, you are a great nation. We want 
your friendship and neutrality. We have close 
business and blood relations, and these should 
not be broken. Germany is not the barbaric na- 
tion her enemies picture her." 

Head No. 2, turned toward the German people, 
said : 

^* Germans, President Wilson is anti-German. 
He wants to prevent us from starting an unlim- 
ited submarine war. America has never been 
neutral, because Washington permits the ammuni- 
tion factories to supply the Allies. These fac- 
tories are killing your relatives. We have mil- 
lions of German- Americans who will support us. 
It will not be long until Mexico will declare war 
on the United States, and our reservists will fight 
for Mexico. Don't be afraid if Wilson breaks 
diplomatic relations." 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 89 

The German press invasion of America began 
at the beginning of the war. Dr. Dernburg was 
the first envoy. He was sent to New York by the 
same Foreign Office officials and the same Krupp 
interests which control the Overseas agency. 
Having failed here, he returned to Berlin. There 
was only one thing to save German propaganda 
in America. That was to mobolise the Sayville 
and Tuckerton wireless stations, and Germany 
did it immediately. 

At the beginning of the war, when the British 
censors refused the American correspondents in 
Germany the right of telegraphing to the United 
States via England, the Berlin Government 
granted permission to the United Press, The As- 
sociated Press and the Chicago Daily News to 
send wireless news via Sayville. At first this 
news was edited by the correspondents of these 
associations and newspapers in Berlin. Later, 
when the individual correspondents began to de- 
mand more space on the wireless, the news sent* 
jointly to these papers was cut down. This un- 
official league of American papers was called the 
^^ War-Union. '' The news which this union sent 
was German, but it was written by trained Ameri- 
can writers. When the Government saw the value 
of this service to the United States it began to 
send wireless news of its own. Then the Krupp 
interests appeared, and the Overseas News 
Agency was organised. At that moment the 
Krupp invasion of the United States began and 



90 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

contributed 800,000 marks annually to this branch 
of propaganda alone. 

Dr. Hanunann, for ten years chief of the Berlin 
Foreign Office propaganda department, was se- 
lected as president of the Overseas News Agency. 
The Krupp interests, which had been subscribing 
400,000 marks annually to this agency, subscribed 
the same amount to the reorganised company. 
Then, believing that another agency could be or- 
ganised, subscribed 400,000 marks more to the 
Transocean News Agency. Because there was so 
much bitterness and rivalry between the officials 
of the two concerns, the Government stepped in 
and informed the Overseas News Agency that it 
could send only ^ Apolitical news,'' while the Trans- 
ocean was authorised to send ^^ economic and so- 
cial news ' ' via Sayville and Tuckerton. 

This news, however, was not solely for the 
United States. Krupp 's eyes were on Mexico 
and South America, so agents were appointed in 
Washington and New York to send the Krupp- 
bred wireless news from New York by cable to 
South America and Mexico. Obviously the same 
news which was sent to the United States could 
not be telegraphed to Mexico and South America, 
because Germany had a different policy toward 
these countries. The United States was on record 
against an unlimited submarine warfare. Mexico 
and South America were not. Brazil, which has 
a big German population, was considered an un- 
annexed German colony. News to Brazil, there- 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 91 

fore, had to be coloured differently than news to 
New York. Some of the colouring was done in 
Berlin; some in New York by Krupp's agents 
here. As a result of Germany's anti-United 
States propaganda in South America and Mexico, 
these countries did not follow President Wilson 
when he broke diplomatic relations with Berlin. 
While public sentiment might have been against 
Germany, it was, to a certain degree, antagonistic 
to the United States. 

Obviously, Germany had to have friends in this 
country to assist her, or what was being done 
would be traced too directly to the German Gov- 
ernment. So Germany financed willing German- 
Americans in their propaganda schemes. And 
because no German could cross the ocean except 
with a falsified neutral passport, Germany had to 
depend upon German-Americans with American 
passports to bring information over. These Ger- 
man-Americans, co-operating with some of the 
Americans in Berlin, kept informing the Foreign 
Office, the army and navy as well as influential 
Reichstag members that the real power behind the 
government over here was not the press and pub- 
lic opinion but the nine million Americans who 
were directly or indirectly related to Germany. 
During this time the Government felt so sure that 
it could rely upon the so-called German-Ameri- 
cans that the Government considered them as a 
German asset whenever there was a submarine 
crisis. 



92 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

When Henry Morgenthau, former American 
Ambassador to Turkey, passed throngli Berlin, 
en route to the United States, he conferred with 
Zimmermann, who was then Under Secretary of 
State. During the course of one of their conver- 
sations Zimmermann said the United States would 
never go to war with Germany, ' 'because the Ger- 
man-Americans would revolt.'^ That was one of 
Zimmermann ^s hobbies. Zimmermann told other 
American officials and foreign correspondents 
that President Wilson would not be able to bring 
the United States to the brink of war, because the 
'^ German- Americans were too powerful. '^ 

But Zimmermann was not making these state- 
ments upon his own authority. He was being 
kept minutely advised about conditions here 
through the German spy system and by German- 
American envoys, who came to Berlin to report 
on progress the German- Americans were making 
here in politics and in Congress. 

Zimmermann was so *'dead sure" he was right 
in expecting a large portion of Americans to be 
disloyal that one time during a conversation with 
Ambassador Gerard he said that he believed Wil- 
son was only bluffing in his submarine notes. 
When Zimmermann was Under Secretary of State 
I used to see him very often. His conversation 
would contain questions like these : 

**Well, how is your English Presidents Why 
doesn't your President do something against 
England r' 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 93 

Zinunermann was always in close touch T\ith the 
work of Captains von Papen and Boy-Ed when 
they were in this country. He was one of the 
chief supports of the little group of intriguers 
in Berlin who directed German propaganda here. 
Zimmermann was the man who kept Baron Mumm 
von Schwarzenstein, foraier Ambassador to 
Tokyo, in the Foreign Office in Berlin as chief of 
foreign propaganda and intrigue in America and 
China. Mumm had been here as Minister Extra- 
ordinary several years ago and knew how Ger- 
many's methods could be used to the best pur- 
pose, namely, to divide American sentiment. 
Then, when Zimmermann succeeded Jagow he 
ousted Mumm because Mumm had become unpop- 
ular with higher Government authorities. 

One day in Berlin, just before the recall of the 
former German military and naval attaches in 
Washington, I asked Zimmermann whether Ger- 
many sanctioned what these men had been doing. 
He replied that Germany approved everything 
they had done ^ ^because they had done nothing 
more than try to keep America out of the war ; to 
prevent American goods reaching the Allies and 
to persuade Germans and those of German de- 
scent not to work in ammunition factories.'' The 
same week I overheard in a Berlin cafe two re- 
serve naval officers discuss plans for destroying 
Allied ships sailing from American ports. One 
of these men was an escaped officer of an interned 
liner at Newport News. He had escaped to Ger- 



94 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

many by way of Italy. That afternoon when I 
saw Ambassador Gerard I told him of the con- 
versation of these two men, and also what Zim- 
mermann had said. The Ambassador had just 
received instructions from Washington about 
Boy-Ed and von Papen. 

Gerard was furious. 

^'Go tell Zimmermann, ' ' he said, *^for God's 
sake to leave America alone. If he keeps this up 
he'll drag us into the war. The United States 
won't stand this sort of thing indefinitely." 

That evening I went back to the Foreign Office 
and saw Zimmermann for a few minutes. I asked 
him why it was that Germany, which was at peace 
with the United States, was doing everything 
within her power to make war. 

*^ Why, Germany is not doing anything to make 
you go to war," he replied. ^^Your President 
seems to want war. Germany is not responsible 
for what the German- Americans are doing. They 
are your citizens, not ours. Germany must not 
be held responsible for what those people do." 

Had it not been for the fact that the American 
Government was fully advised about Zimmer- 
mann 's intrigues in the United States this remark 
might be accepted on its face. The United States 
knew that Germany was having direct negotia- 
tions with German-Ajnericans in the United 
States. Men came to Germany with letters of 
introduction from leading German-Americans 
here, with the expressed purpose of trying to get 



HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA 95 

Germany to stop its propaganda here. What 
they did do was to assure Germany that the Ger- 
man-Americans would never permit the United 
States to be drawn into the war. Because of their 
high recommendations from Germans here some 
of them had audiences with the Kaiser. 

Germany had been supporting financially some 
Americans, as the State Department has proof 
of checks which have been given to American 
citizens for propaganda and spy work. 

I know personally of one instance where Gen- 
eral Director Heinicken, of the North German- 
Lloyd, gave an American in Berlin $1,000 for his 
reports on American conditions. The name can- 
not be mentioned because there are no records to 
prove the transaction, although the man receiving 
this money came to me and asked me to transmit 
$250 to his mother through the United Press of- 
fice. I refused. 

When Zimmermann began to realise that Ger- 
many's threatening propaganda in the United 
States and Germany's plots against American 
property were not succeeding in frightening the 
United States away from war, he began to look 
forward to the event of war. He saw, as most 
Germans did, that it would be a long time before 
the United States could get forces to Europe in a 
sufficient number to have a decisive effect upon 
the war. He began to plan wdth the General Staff 
and the Navy to league Mexico against America 
for two purposes. One, Germany figured that a 



96 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

war with Mexico would keep the United States 
army and navy busy over here. Further, Zim- 
mermann often said to callers that if the United 
States went to war with Mexico it would not be 
possible for American factories to send so much 
ammunition and so many supplies to the Allies. 
German eyes turned to Mexico. As soon as 
President Wilson recognised Carranza as Presi- 
dent, Germany followed with a formal recogni- 
tion. Zubaran Capmany, who had been Mexican 
representative in Washington, was sent to Berlin 
as Carranza 's Minister. Inunediately upon his 
arrival Zimmermann began negotiations with 
him. Reports of the negotiations were sent to 
Washington. The State Department was warned 
that unless the United States solved the *' Mexi- 
can problem" immediately Germany would pre- 
pare to attack us through Mexico. German reser- 
vists were tipped oi^ to be ready to go to Mexico 
upon a moment's notice. Count von Bemstor:^ 
and the German Consuls in the United States 
were instructed, and Bernstorff, who was acting 
as the general director of German interests in 
North and South America, was told to inform the 
German officials in the Latin- American countries. 
At the same time German financial interests be- 
gan to purchase banks, farms and mines in 
Mexico. 



CHAPTER y 

THE DOWNFALL OF VOX TIKPITZ AND VON FAL- 

KENHAYN 

AFTER the sinking of the Arabic the Ger- 
man Foreign Office intimated to the United 
States Government and to the American 
correspondents that methods of submarine war- 
fare would be altered and that ships would be 
warned before they were torpedoed. But when 
the Navy heard that the Foreign Office was in- 
clined to listen to Mr. Wilson *s protests it made 
no attempt to conceal its opposition. Gottlieb 
von Jagow, the Secretary of State, although he 
was an intimate friend of the Kaiser and an offi- 
cer in the German Army, was at heart a pacifist. 
Every time an opportunity presented itself he 
tried to mobilise the peace forces of the world 
to make peace. From time to time, the German 
financiers and propaganda leaders in the United 
States, as well as influential Germans in the 
neutral European countries, sent out peace **feel- 
ers.'' Von Jagow realised that the sooner peace 
was made, the better it would be for Germany 
and the easier it would be for the Foreign Office 
to defeat the military party at home. He saw 

97 



98 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

that the more victories the army had and the 
more victories it could announce to the people the 
more lustful the General Staff would be for a 
war of exhaustion. Army leaders have always 
had more confidence in their ability to defeat the 
world than the Foreign Office. The army looked 
at the map of Europe and saw so many hundred 
thousand square miles of territory under occupa- 
tion. The Foreign Office saw Germany in its re- 
lation to the world. Von Jagow knew that every 
new square mile of territory gained was being 
paid for, not only by the cost of German blood, 
but by the more terrible cost of public opinion 
and German influence abroad. But Germany was 
under martial law and the Foreign Office had 
nothing to say about military plans. The For- 
eign Office also had little to say about naval war- 
fare. The Navy was building submarines as fast 
as it could and the number of ships lost encour- 
aged the people to believe that the more intensified 
the submarine war became, the quicker the war 
would end in Germany's favour. So the Navy 
kept sinking ships and relying upon the Foreign 
Office to make excuses and keep America out of 
the war. 

The repeated violations of the pledges made by 
the Foreign Office to the United States aroused 
American public opinion to white heat, and justly 
so, because the people here did not understand 
that the real submarine crisis was not between 
President Wilson and Berlin but between Ad- 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 99 

miral von Tirpitz and Secretary von Jagow and 
their followers. President "Wilson was at the 
limit of his patience with Germany and the Ger- 
man people, who were becoming impatient over 
the long drawn out proceedings, began to accept 
the inspired thinking of the Navy and to believe 
that Wilson was working for the defeat of Ger- 
many by interfering with submarine activities. 

On February 22nd, 1916, in one of my des- 
patches I said: *^The patient attitude toward 
America displayed during the Lusitania negotia- 
tions, it is plain to-day, no longer exists because 
of the popular feeling that America has already 
hindered so many of Germany's plans." At that 
time it appeared to observers in Berlin that un- 
less President Wilson could show more patience 
than the German Government the next subma- 
rine accident would bring about a break in rela- 
tions. Commenting on this despatch the Indianap- 
olis Neius the next day said : 

*'In this country the people feel that all the 
patience has been shown by their government. 
We believe that history will sustain that view. 
Almost ten months ago more than 100 American 
citizens were deliberately done to death by the 
German Government, for it is understood that 
the submarine commander acted under instruc- 
tions, and that Germany refuses to disavow on 
the ground that the murderous act was the act of 
the German Government. Yet, after all this time. 



100 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

tlae Lusitania case is still unsettled. The admin- 
istration has, with marvellous self-restraint, rec- 
ognised that public opinion in Germany was not 
normal, and for that reason it has done every- 
thing in its power to smooth the way to a settle- 
ment by making it as easy as possible for the 
Imperial Government to meet our just demands. 
Indeed, the President has gone so far as to expose 
himself to severe criticism at home. We believe 
that he would have been sustained if he had, im- 
mediately after the sinking of the Lusitania, 
broken off diplomatic relations. 

*^But he has stood out against public opinion 
in his own country, waited ten months for an an- 
swer, and done everything that he could in honour 
due to soften the feeling here. Yet just on the eve 
of a settlement that would have been unsatisfac- 
tory to many of our people, Germany announced 
the policy that we had condemned as illegal, and 
that plainly is illegal. The trouble in Berlin is 
an utter inability to see anything wrong in the 
attack on the Lusitania, or to appreciate the sense 
of horror that was stirred in this country by it. 
The idea seems to be that the policy of frightful- 
ness could be extended to the high seas without 
in any way shocking the American people. Noth- 
ing has come from Berlin that indicates any feel- 
ing of guilt on the part of the German people or 
their Government. 

*'In the United States, on the contrary, the act 
is regarded as one of the blackest crimes of his- 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 101 

tory. And yet, in spite of that feeling, we have 
waited patiently for ten months in the hope that 
the German Government would do justice, and 
clear its name of reproach. Yet now we are told 
that it is Germany that has shown a ^patient at- 
titude,' the implication or insinuation being that 
our long suffering administration has been unrea- 
sonable and impatient. That will not be the ver- 
dict of history, as it is not the verdict of our own 
people. We have made every allowance for the 
conditions existing in Germany, and have reso- 
lutely refused to take advantage of her distress. 
We doubt whether there is any other government 
in the world that would have shown the patience 
and moderation, under like provocation, that have 
been shown by the American Government in these 
Lu^itania negotiations.'' 

I sent the editorial to von Jagow, who returned 
it the next day with the brief comment on one of 
his calling cards: ^^With many thanks." 

About this time Count Reventlow and the other 
naval writers began to refer to everything Presi- 
dent Wilson did as a ^^ bluff." When Col. E. M. 
House came to Berlin early in 1916, he tried to 
impress the officials with the fact that Mr. Wilson 
was not only not bluffing, but that the American 
people would support him in whatever he did in 
dealing with the German Government. Mr. Ger- 
ard tried too to impress the Foreign Office but 
because he could only deal with that branch of the 



102 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Government, he conld not change the Navy's im- 
pression, which was that Wilson would never take 
a definite stand against Germany. On the 8th of 
February, the London Times printed the follow- 
ing despatch which I had sent to the United 
States : 

'*Mr. Gerard has been accused of not being 
forceful enough in dealing with the Berlin For- 
eign Office. In Berlin he has been criticised for 
just the opposite. It has been stated frequently 
that he was too aggressive. The Ambassador's 
position was that he must carry out Mr. Wilson's 
ideas. So he tried for days and weeks to impress 
officials with the seriousness of the situation. At 
the critical point in the negotiations various un- 
offi-cial diplomats began to arrive and they seri- 
ously interfered with negotiations. One of these 
was a politician who through his credentials from 
Mr. Bryan met many high officials, and informed 
them that President Wilson was writing his notes 
for *home consumption.' Mr. Gerard, however, 
appealed to Washingi;on to know what was meant 
by the moves of this American with authority 
from Mr. Bryan. This was the beginning of the 
reason for Secretary Bryan's resigning. 

^^ Secretary Bryan had informed also former 
Ambassador Dumba that the United States would 
never take any position against Germany even 
though it was hinted so in the Lusitania note. 
Dumba telegraphed this to Vienna and Berlin 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 103 

was informed immediately. Because of Mr. Ger- 
ard's personal friendship and personal associa- 
tion with Secretary of State von Jagow and Un- 
der Secretary of State Zimmermann, he was ac- 
quainted with Secretary Bryan's move. He 
telegraphed to President Wilson and the result 
was the resignation of Mr. Bryan.'' 

In December, the Ancona was torpedoed and it 
was officially explained that the act was that of 
an Austrian submarine commander. Wilson's 
note to Vienna brought about a near rupture be- 
tween Austria-Hungary and Germany because 
Austria and Hungary at that time were much op- 
posed to Germany's submarine methods. Al- 
though the submarines operating in the Mediter- 
ranean were flying the Austrian flag, they were 
German submarines, and members of the crews 
were German. Throughout the life of the Em- 
peror Franz Josef the Dual Monarchy was ruled, 
not from Vienna, but from Budapest by Count 
Stefan Tisza, the Hungarian Premier. I was in 
Budapest at the time and one evening saw Count 
Tisza at his palace, which stands on the rocky 
cliif opposite the main part of Budapest, and 
which overlooks the valley of the Danube for 
many miles. Tisza, as well as all Hungarians, is 
pro- American before he is pro-German. 

**To think of trouble between Austria-Hungary 
and the United States is sheer nonsense," he said 
in his quiet but forceful manner. ^^I must con- 
fess, however, that we were greatly surprised to 



104 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

get the American note. It is far from our inten- 
tion to get into any quarrel with America. Per- 
haps I should not say quarrel, because I know it 
would not be that, but of course matters do not de- 
pend upon us entirely. There is no reason for any 
trouble over the Ancona question. It must be 
settled satisfactorily," he said emphatically, ^^not 
only from the standpoint of the United States, but 
from our standpoint.'' 

The Ancona crisis brought the Foreign Office 
new and unexpected support. Hungary was op- 
posed to a dispute with Ajuerica. In the first 
place, Hungarians are more of a liberty loving 
people than the Germans, and public opinion in 
Hungary rules the country. While there is a 
strong Government press, which is loyal to the 
Tisza party, there is an equally powerful opposi- 
tion press which follows the leadership of Count 
Albert Apponyi and Count Julius Andrassy, the 
two most popular men in Hungarian public life. 
Apponyi told me on one occasion that while the 
Government was controlled by Tisza a great ma- 
jority of the people sided with the opposition. 
He added that the constant antagonism, of the 
Liberals and Democrats kept the Government 
within bounds. 

Hungarians resented the stain upon their 
honour of the Ancona incident and they were on 
the verge of compelling Berlin to assume respon- 
sibility for the sinking and adjust the matter. 
But Berlin feared that if the Ancona crime was 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 105 

accredited to the real murderers it would bring 
about another, and perhaps a fatal crisis with the 
United States. So Vienna assumed responsibility 
and promised to punish the submarine com- 
mander who torpedoed the ship. 

This opposition from Hungary embittered the 
German Navy but it was helpless. The growing 
fear of the effects which President Wilson's notes 
were having upon Americans and upon the out- 
side neutral world caused opposition to von Tir- 
pitz to gain more force. In desperation von Tir- 
pitz and his followers extended the anti- American 
propaganda and began personal attacks upon von 
Bethmann-Hollweg. 

Bitterness between these two men became so 
great that neither of them would go to the Great 
Headquarters to confer with the Kaiser if the 
other was there. The personal opposition reached 
the point where the Kaiser could not keep both 
men in his cabinet. Von Tirpitz, who thought he 
was the hero of the German people because of the 
submarine policy, believed he had so much power 
that he could shake the hold which the Kaiser had 
upon the people and frighten the Emperor into 
the belief that unless he supported him against 
the Chancellor and the United States, the people 
would overthrow the Hohenzollem d>aiasty. But 
von Tirpitz had made a good many personal en- 
emies especially among financiers and business 
men. So the Kaiser, instead of ousting the Chan- 
cellor, asked von Tirpitz to resign and appointed 



106 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Admiral von Capelle, the Assistant Secretary of 
the Navy and a friend of the Chancellor, as von 
Tirpitz' successor. Admiral von Mueller, Chief 
of the Naval Cabinet, who was always at Great 
Headquarters as the Kaiser's personal adviser on 
naval affairs, was opposed to von Tirpitz and ex- 
posed him at the Great Headquarters conferences 
by saying that von Tirpitz had falsified the 
Navy's figures as to the number of submarines 
available for a blockade of E^igland. Von Ca- 
pelle supported von Mueller and when the friends 
of von Tirpitz in the Reichstag demanded an ex- 
planation for the ousting of their idol, both the 
Chancellor and von Capelle explained that Ger- 
many could not continue submarine warfare which 
von Tirpitz had started, because of the lack of the 
necessary submarines. 

This was the first big victory of the Foreign 
Office. The democratic forces in Germany which 
had been fighting von Tirpitz for over a year 
were jubilant. Every one in Germany who re- 
alised that not until the hold of the military party 
upon the Kaiser and the Government was dis- 
lodged, would the Government be able to make 
peace now breathed sighs of relief and began to 
make plans for the adjustment of all differences 
with the United States and for a peace without 
annexation. Von Tirpitz had had the support of 
all the forces in Germany which looked forward 
to the annexation of Belgium and the richest por- 
tions of Northern France. Von Tirpitz was sup- 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 107 

ported by the men who wanted the eastern border 
of Germany extended far into Poland and 
Lithuania. 

Even Americans were delighted. Washington 
for the first time began to see that eleven months 
of patience was bearing fruit. But this period of 
exaltation was not destined to last very long. 
While the Chancellor had cleaned house in the 
Navy Department at Berlin he had overlooked 
Kiel. There w^ere admirals and officers in charge 
there who were making preparations for the 
Navy. They were the men who talked to the sub- 
marine coramanders before they started out on 
their lawless sea voyages. 

On March 24th the whole world was shocked by 
another U-boat crime. ' The Sussex, a French 
channel steamer, plying between Folkstone and 
Dieppe, was torpedoed without warning and 
Americans w^ere among the passengers killed and 
wounded. When the news reached Berlin, not 
only the Chancellor and the Foreign Office were 
shocked and horrified, but the American Embassy 
began to doubt whether the Chancellor really 
meant what he said when he informed Gerard 
confidentially that now that von Tirpitz was gone 
there would be no new danger from the subma- 
rines. Even the new Admiralty administration 
was loathe to believe that a German submarine 
was responsible. 

By April 5th it was apparent to every one in 
Berlin that there would be another submarine 



108 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

crisis with the United States and that the reac- 
tionary forces in Germany would attempt again 
to overthrow the Chancellor. Dr. von Bethmann- 
Hollweg, who had been doing everything possible 
to get some one to propose peace, decided to ad- 
dress the Reichstag again on Germany's peace 
aims. It was announced in the newspapers only a 
few days beforehand. The demand for tickets of 
admission was so great that early in the morning 
on the day scheduled for the address such dense 
crowds surrounded the Reichstag building that 
the police had to make passages so the military 
automobiles could reach the building to bring the 
officials there. 

The Chamber itself was crowded to the rafters. 
On the floor of the House practically every mem- 
ber was in his seat. On the rostrum were several 
hundred army and naval officers, all members of 
the cabinet, prominent business men and finan- 
ciers. Every one awaited the entrance of the 
Chancellor with great expectations. The National 
Liberals, who had been clamouring for the annex- 
ation of Belgium, the conservatives, who wanted 
a stronger war policy against England, the Social- 
ists, who wanted real guarantees for the German 
people for the future and a peace without annexa- 
tion, sat quietly in their seats anxiously awaiting 
the Chancellor's remarks which were expected to 
satisfy all wants. 

The Chancellor entered the chamber from the 
rear of the rostrum and proceeded to his desk in 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 109 

the front platform row, facing the House and 
galleries. After a few preliminary remarks by 
President Kaempf, the Chancellor arose. To the 
Chancellor's left, near the rear of the hall among 
his Socialist colleagues, sat a nervous, deter- 
mined and defiant radical. He was dressed in the 
uniform of a common soldier. Although he had 
been at the front several months and in the firing 
line, he had not received the iron cross of the 
second class which practically every soldier w^ho 
had seen service had been decorated with. His 
clothes were soiled, trousers stuffed into the top 
of heavy military boots. His thick, curly hair was 
rumpled. At this session of the Eeichstag the 
Chancellor was to have his first encounter with 
Dr. Karl Liebknecht, the Socialist radical, who in 
his soldier 's uniform was ready to challenge any- 
thing the Chancellor said. 

The Chancellor began his address, as he began 
all others, by referring to the strong military 
position of the German army. He led up, gradu- 
ally, to the subject of peace. When the Chan- 
cellor said: ^'We could have gotten what we 
wanted by peaceful work. Our enemies chose 
war.'' Liebknecht interjected in his sharp, 
shrill voice, ^^You chose the war!" There was 
great excitement and hissing; the President called 
for order. Members shouted : ^ ' Throw him out ! ' ' 
But Liebknecht sat there more determined than 
ever. 

The Chancellor continued for a few minutes 



110 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

until lie reached the discussion of the establish- 
ment of a Flemish nation in Belgium, when Lieb- 
knecht again interrupted, but the Chancellor con- 
tinued: * ^ Grentlemen, we want neighbours who 
will not again unite against us in order to 
strangle us, but such that we can work with them 
and they with us to our mutual advantage/' A 
storm of applause greeted this remark. Lieb- 
knecht was again on his feet and shouted, ^ ^ Then 
you will fall upon them ! ' ' 

*^The Europe which will arise from this, thei 
most gigantic of all crises, will in many respects 
not resemble the old one,'' continued von Beth- 
mann-Hollweg. *^The blood which has been shed 
will never come back; the wealth which has been 
wasted will come back but only slowly. In any 
case, it must become, for all living in it, a Europe 
of peaceful labour. The peace which shall end 
this war must be a lasting one and not containing 
the germ of a fresh war, but establishing a final 
and peaceful order of things in European 
affairs." 

Before the applause had gotten a good start the 
fiery private in the Socialists' rank was again on 
his feet, this time shouting, *^ Liberate the Ger- 
man people first!" 

Throughout the Chancellor's speech there was 
not one reference to the Sussex. The Chancellor 
was anxious if he could to turn the world 's atten- 
tion from the Sussex to the larger question of 
peace, but the world was not so inclined. 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 111 

On the IStli of April I asked Admiral von 
Holtzendorff, Chief of the Admiralty Staff, for 
his opinion about the Sussex. Two days later he 
approved the interview, in which I quoted him as 
saying : 

**We did not sink the Sussex. 1 am as con- 
vinced of that as of anything which has happened 
in this war. If you read the definite instructions, 
the exact orders each submarine commander has 
you would understand that the torpedoing of the 
Sussex was impossible. Many of our submarines 
have returned from rounding up British vessels. 
They sighted scores of passenger ships going be- 
tween England and America but not one of these 
was touched. 

**We have definitely agreed to warn the crews 
and passengers of passenger liners. We have 
lived up to that promise in every way. We are 
not out to torpedo without warning neutral ships 
bound for England. Our submarines have re- 
spected every one of them so far, and they have 
met scores in the North Sea, the Channel and the 
Atlantic.'' 

On the same day that Ambassador Gerard 
handed von Jagow Secretary Lansing's note, 
Under Secretary of State Zimmermann approved 
the von Holtzendorff interview. Zimmermann 
could not make himself believe that a German 
submarine was responsible and the Government 



112 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

had decided to disavow all responsibility. But 
such convincing reports began to arrive from the 
United States and from neutral European coun- 
tries which proved beyond a doubt that a German 
submarine was responsible, that the Government 
had to again bring up the submarine issue at Great 
Headquarters. When the von Holtzendorff inter- 
view was published in the United States it caused 
a sensation because if Germany maintained the 
attitude which the Chief of the Admiralty Staff 
had taken with the approval of the Foreign Office, 
a break in diplomatic relations could not be 
avoided. Secretary Lansing telegraphed Ambas- 
sador Gerard to inquire at the Foreign Office 
whether the statements of von Holtzendorff repre- 
sented the opinions of the German Government. 
Gerard called me to the Embassy but before I 
arrived Dr. Heckscher, of the Eeichstag Foreign 
Relations Committee, came. Gerard called me in 
in Heckscher 's presence to ask if I knew that the 
von Holtzendorff interview would bring about a 
break in diplomatic relations unless it was im- 
mediately disavowed. He told Dr. Heckscher to 
inform Zimmermann that if the Chief of the Ad- 
miralty Staff was going to direct Germany's for- 
eign policies he would ask his government to ac- 
credit him to the naval authorities and not to the 
Foreign Office. Heckscher would not believe my 
statement that Zimmermann had approved the 
interview and assured Gerard that within a very 
short time the Foreign Office would disavow von 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 113 

Holtzendorif 's statements. When he arrived at 
the Foreign Office, however, Zimmermann not 
only refused to disavow the Admiral's statement 
but informed Heckscher that he had the same 
opinions. 

President Wilson was at the end of his patience. 
Probably he began to doubt whether he could rely 
upon the reports of Ambassador Gerard that 
there was a chance of the democratic forces in 
Germany coming out ahead of the military caste. 
Wilson showed his attitude plainly in the Sussex 
note when he said: 

**The Government of the United States has 
been very patient. At every stage of this distress- 
ing experience of tragedy after tragedy it has 
sought to be governed by the most thoughtful 
considerations of the extraordinary circum- 
stances of an unprecedented war and to be guided 
by sentiments of very genuine friendship for the 
people and the Government of Germany. It has 
accepted the successive explanations and assur- 
ances of the Imperial Government as of course 
given in entire sincerity and good faith, and has 
hoped even against hope that it would prove to 
be possible for the Imperial Government so to 
order and control the acts of its naval command- 
ers as to square its policy with the recognised 
principles of humanity as embodied in the law of 
nations. It has made every allowance for un- 
precedented conditions and has been willing to 



114 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

wait until the facts became unmistakable and 
were susceptible of only one interpretation. It 
now owes it to a just regard for its own rights to 
say to the Imperial Government that that time 
has come. It has become painfully evident to it 
that the position which it took at the very outset 
is inevitable, namely that the use of ''submarines 
for the destruction of enemy commerce is of ne- 
cessity, because of the very character of the ves- 
sels employed and the very methods of attack 
which their employment of course involves, ut- 
terly incompatible with the principles of human- 
ity, the long established and incontrovertible 
rights of neutrals and the sacred immunities of 
non-combatants. 

*^If it is still the purpose of the Imperial Gov- 
ernment to prosecute relentless and indiscrimi- 
nate warfare against vessels of commerce by the 
use of submarines without regard to what the 
Government of the United States must consider 
the sacred and indisputable rules of international 
law and the universally recognised dictates of 
humanity, the Government of the United States 
is at last forced to the conclusion that there is 
but one course it can pursue. Unless the Imperial 
Government should now immediately declare and 
effect an abandonment of its present methods of 
submarine warfare against passenger and freight 
carrying vessels, the Government of the United 
States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic 
relations with the German Government altogether. 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 115 

This action the Government of the United States 
contemplates with the greatest reluctance but 
feels constrained to take in behalf of humanity 
and the rights of neutral nations. ' ' 

After von Jagow read the note the Foreign 
Office Telegraph Bureau sent it to Great Head- 
quarters, which at this time was still located in 
Charleville, France, for the information of the 
Kaiser and General von Falkenhayn. It was evi- 
dent to every one in Berlin that again, not only 
the submarine issue was to be debated at Great 
Headquarters, but that the Kaiser was to be 
forced again to decide between the Chancellor and 
his democratic supporters and von Falkenhajm 
and the military party. Before the Conference 
convened General Headquarters sent inquiries to 
five government departments, the Foreign Office, 
the Navy, the Ministry of War, the Treasury, said 
Interior. The Ministers at the head of these de- 
partments were asked to state whether in their 
opinion the controversy with America should be 
adjusted, or whether the submarine warfare 
should be continued. Dr. Karl Helfferich, the 
Vice Chancellor and Minister of Interior, Secre- 
tary of State von Jagow, and Count von Roedern, 
Minister of Finance, replied to adjust the diffi- 
culty. The Army and Navy said in effect: *'If 
you can adjust it without stopping the submarine 
warfare and without breaking with the United 
States do so.'* 



116 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

The latter part of April the Kaiser summoned 
all of his ministers and his leading generals to 
the French chateau which he used as his head- 
quarters in Charleville. This city is one of the 
most picturesque cities in the occupied districts 
of northern France. It is located on the banks of 
the Meuse and contains many historic, old ruins. 
At one end of the town is a large stone castle, 
surrounded by a moat. This was made the head- 
quarters of the General Sta:ff after the Germans 
invaded this section of France. Near the railroad 
station there was a public park. Facing it was a 
French chateau, a beautiful, comfortable home. 
This was the Kaiser's residence. All streets leading 
in this direction were barricaded and guarded by 
sentries. No one could pass without a special writ- 
ten permit from the Chief of the General Staff. 
Von Falkenhayn had his home nearby in another 
of the beautiful chateaux there. The chief of every 
department of the General Staff lived in princely 
fashion in houses which in peace time were homes 
for distingnished Frenchmen. There were left in 
Charleville scarcely a hundred French citizens, 
because obviously French people, who were ene- 
mies of Germany, could not be permitted to go 
back and forth in the city which was the centre 
of German militarism. 

When the ministers arrived at the Kaiser's 
headquarters, His Majesty asked each one to make 
a complete report on the submarine war as it 
affected his department. Dr. Helfferich was 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 117 

asked to go into the question of German finance 
and the relation of America to it. Dr. Solf, the 
Colonial Minister, who had been a very good 
friend of Ambassador Gerard, discussed the ques- 
tion of the submarine warfare from the stand- 
point of its relation to Germany's position as a 
world power. Admiral von Capelle placed before 
the Kaiser the figures of the number of ships sunk, 
their tonnage, the number of submarines operat- 
ing, the number under construction and the num- 
ber lost. General von Falkenhayn reported on 
the military situation and discussed the hypo- 
thetical question as to what effect American inter- 
vention w^ould have upon the European war 
theatres. 

While the conferences were going on. Dr. 
Heckscher and Under Secretary Zimmermann, 
who at that time were anxious to avoid a break 
with the United States, sounded Ambassador 
Gerard as to whether he would be willing to go 
to Great Headquarters to confer with the Kaiser. 
The Foreign Office at the same time suggested the 
matter to the General Staff and within a few hours 
Mr. Gerard was invited to go to Charleville. Be- 
fore the ambassador arrived the Kaiser called all 
of his ministers together for a joint session and 
asked them to make a brief summary of their 
arguments. This was. not a peace meeting. Not 
only opponents of submarine warfare but its ad- 
vocates mobilised all their forces in a final attempt 
to win the Kaiser's approval. His Majesty, at 



118 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

this time, was inclined towards peace with Amer- 
ica and was very much impressed by the argu- 
ments which the Chancellor and Dr. Helfferich 
presented. But, at this meeting, while Helfferich 
was talking and pointing to the moral effect which 
the ruthless torpedoing of ships was having upon 
neutral countries, von Falkenhayn interrupted 
with the succinct statement: 

*^ Neutrals? Damn the neutrals! Win the 
war ! Our task is to win. If we win we will have 
the neutrals with us; if we lose we lose.'' 

*^ Falkenhayn, when you are versed in foreign 
affairs I'll ask you to speak," interrupted the 
Kaiser. *^ Proceed, Dr. Helfferich." 

Gentleman that he is, von Falkenhayn accepted 
the Imperial rebuke, but not long afterward his 
resignation was submitted. 

As a result of these conferences and the argu- 
ments advanced by Ambassador Gerard, Secre- 
tary von Jagow on May 4th handed the Ambas- 
sador the German note in reply to President Wil- 
son's Sussex ultimatum. In this communication 
Germany said: 

^^Fully conscious of its strength, the German 
Government has twice in the course of the past 
few months expressed itself before all the world 
as prepared to conclude a peace safeguarding the 
vital interests of Germany. In doing so, it gave 
expression to the fact that it was not its fault if 
peace was further withheld from the peoples of 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 119 

Europe. With a correspondingly greater claim 
of justification, the German Government may pro- 
claim its unwillingness before mankind and his- 
tory to undertake the responsibility, after twenty- 
one months of war, to allow the controversy that 
has arisen over the submarine question to take a 
turn which might seriously affect the maintenance 
of peace between these two nations. 

^^The German Government guided by this idea 
notifies the Government of the United States that 
instructions have been issued to German naval 
commanders that the precepts of the general 
international fiindamental principles he observed 
as regards stopping, searching and destruction of 
merchant vessels within the ivar zone and that 
such vessels shall not Be sunk without warning 
and ivithout saving human life unless the ship 
attempts to escape or offers resistance: 



yy 



At the beginning of the war it was a group of 
military leaders consisting of General von Moltke, 
General von Falkenhayn, General von Mackensen, 
General von Herringen, Grand Admiral von Tir- 
pitz, and a few of the Prussian military clique, 
which prevailed upon the Kaiser to go to war 
after the assassination of the heir to the Austrian 
throne and his wife. The Allies proclaimed in 
their publications, in the press and in Parliaments 
that they were fighting to destroy and overthrow 
the military party in Germany which could make 
war without public consent. Millions of Allied 



120 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

soldiers were mobilised and fighting in almost a 
complete ring surrounding Germany, Austria 
Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. They had been 
fighting since August, 1914, for twenty-one 
months, and still their fighting had not shattered 
or weakened the hold which the military party 
had upon the people and the Kaiser. Von Tirpitz 
and von Falkenhayn, who, shortly after the war 
began, became the ringleaders of Germany's or- 
ganised Might, had fallen not before the armed 
foes on the hattlefielcl hut before a/ri unarmed 
nation with a president whose only weapon was 
public opinion. First, von Tirpitz fell because he 
was ready to defy the United States. Then came 
the downfall of von Falkenhayn, because he was 
prepared to damn the United States and all neu- 
trals. Surely a nation and a government after 
thirteen months of patience and hope had a right 
to believe that after all public opinion was a 
weapon which was sometimes more effective than 
any other. Mr. Wilson and the State Department 
were justified in feeling that their policy toward 
Germany was after all successful not alone be- 
cause it had solved the vexing submarine issue, 
but because it had aided the forces of democracy 
in Germany. Because, with the downfall of von 
Falkenhayn and von Tirpitz, there was only one 
recognised authority in Germany. That was the 
Chancellor and the Foreign Office, supported al- 
most unanimously by the Socialists and by the 



VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN 121 

Liberal forces which were at work to reform the 
German Government. 

But this was in May, 1916, scarcely eight 
months before the Kaiser changed his mind and 
again decided to support the people who were 
clamouring for a ruthless, murderous, defiant war 
against the whole world, if the world was 
**foolish'^ enough to join in. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 

DE. KAEL LIEBKNECHT, after he liad 
clialleiiged the Chancellor ou the 4th of 
April, became the object of attack by the 
military authorities. The Chancellor, although he 
is the real Minister of Foreign Affairs, is, also, a 
Major General in the Army and for a private like 
Liebknecht to talk to a Major General as he did 
in the Eeichstag was contrary to all rules and 
precedents in the Prussian Army. The army was 
ready to send Liebknecht to the firing squad and 
it was only a short time until they had an oppor- 
tunity to arrest him. Liebknecht started riots in 
some of the ammunition factories and one night 
at Potsdamer Platz, dressed in civilian clothes, he 
shouted, *^Down with the Government,'' and 
started to address the passers-by. He was seized 
immediately by government detectives, who were 
always following him, and taken to the police sta- 
tion. His home was searched and when the trial 
began the papers, found there, were placed before 
the military tribunal as evidence that he was plot- 
ting against the Government. The trial was 
secret, and police blockaded all streets a quarter 

122 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 123 

of a mile away from the court where he was tried. 
Throughout the proceedings which lasted a week 
the newspapers were permitted to print only the 
information distributed by the Wolff Telegraph 
Bureau. But public sjinpathy for Liebknecht 
was so great that mounted police were kept in 
every part of the city day and night to break up 
crowds which might assemble. Behind closed 
doors, without an opportunity to consult his 
friends, with only an attorney appointed by the 
Government to defend him, Liebknecht was sen- 
tenced to two years ' hard labour. His only crime 
was that he had dared to speak in the Reichstag 
the opinions of some of the more radical socialists. 

Liebknecht 's imprisonment was a lesson to 
other Socialist agitators. The day after his sen- 
tencing was announced there were strikes in 
nearly every ammunition factory in and around 
Berlin. Even at Spandau, next to Essen the larg- 
est ammunition manufacturing city in Germany, 
several thousand workmen left their benches as a 
protest, but the German people have such terrible 
fear of the police and of their own military or- 
ganisation that they strike only a day and return 
the next to forget about previous events. 

If there were no other instances in Germany 
to indicate that there was the nucleus for a democ- 
racy this would seem to be one. One might say, 
too, that if such leaders as Liebknecht could be 
assisted, the movement for more freedom might 
have more success. 



124 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

It was very difficult for tlie German public to 
accept the German reply to President Wilson's 
Sussex note. The people were bitter against the 
United States. They hated Wilson. They feared 
him. And the idea of the German Government 
bending its knee to a man they hated was enough 
cause for loud protests. This feeling among the 
people found plenty of outlets. The submarine 
advocates, who always had their ears to the 
ground, saw that they could take advantage of 
this public feeling at the expense of the Chancellor 
and the Foreign Office. Prince von Buelow, the 
former Chancellor, who had been spending most 
of his time in Switzerland after his failure to 
keep Italy out of the war, had written a book 
entitled ^* Deutsche Politik," which was intended 
to be an indictment of von Bethmann-Hollweg's 
international policies. Von Buelow returned to 
Berlin at the psychological moment and began to 
mobilise the forces against the Chancellor. 

After the Sussex dispute was ended the Social- 
ist organ Vorwaerts^ supported by Philip Scheide- 
mann, leader of the majority of the Socialists, de- 
manded that the Government take some steps 
toward peace. But the General Staff was so busy 
preparing for the expected Allied offensive that 
it had no time to think about peace or about 
internal questions. When von Falkenhayn re- 
signed and von Hindenburg arrived at Great 
Headquarters to succeed him the two generals met 
for the first time in many months. (There was 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 125 

bitter feeling between the two.) Von Falkenhayn, 
as he turned the office over to his successor, said: 

* ' Has Your Excellency the courage to take over 
this position now?" 

*^I have always had the courage, Your Excel- 
lency,'' replied von Hindenburg, *^but not the 
soldiers.'' 

In the Reichstag there has been only one real 
democratic party. That is the Socialist. The 
National Liberal Party, which has posed as a 
reform organisation, is in reality nothing more 
than the party controlled by the ammunition and 
war industries. When these interests heard that 
submarine warfare was to be so restricted as to be 
practically negligible, thej^ began to sow seeds of 
discontent among the ammunition makers. These 
interests began to plan for the time when the 
submarine warfare would again be discussed. 
Their first scheme was to try to overthrow the 
Chancellor. If they were not successful then they 
intended to take advantage of the democratic 
movement which was spreading in Germany to 
compel the Government to consent to the creation 
of a Reichstag Committee on Foreign Affairs to 
consult with the Foreign Office when all questions 
of international policy, including submarine war- 
fare, was up for discussion. Their first policy was 
tried early in July. Seizing that clause in the 
German note which said that Germany would hold 
herself free to change her promises in the Sussex 
case if the United States was not successful 



126 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

against England, the Navy began to threaten the 
United States with renewed submarine warfare 
unless President Wilson acted against Great 
Britain. 

Reporting some of these events on June 12th, 
the Evening Ledger of Philadelphia printed the 
following despatch which I sent: 

'^Beelin, July 12. — The overthrow of Chancel- 
lor von Bethmann-Hollweg, champion of a con- 
ciliatory policy toward the United States, and the 
unloosing of German submarines within three 
months, was predicted by von Tirpitz supporters 
here to-day unless President "Wilson acts against 
the British blockade. 

^ ' Members of the Conservative party and those 
favouring annexation of territory conquered by 
Germany joined in the forecast. They said the 
opinion of America will be disregarded. 

^'A private source, close to the Foreign Office, 
made this statement regarding the attempt to 
unseat Bethmann-Hollweg at a time when the war 
is approaching a crisis: 

^* * Unless America does something against 
England within the next three months there will 
be a bitter fight against the Chancellor. One can- 
not tell whether he will be able to hold Ms own 
against such opposition. The future of German- 
American relations depends upon America.^ 

*^ Despite this political drive against the man 
who stood out against a break with the United 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 127 

States in the Lusitania crisis, Americans here be- 
lieve Betlmiann-IIollweg will again emerge trium- 
phant. They feel certain that if the Chancellor 
appealed to the public for a decision he would be 
supported. 

'^The figlit to oust the Chancellor has now 
grown to such proportions that it overshadows in 
interest the Allied offensive. The attacks on the 
Chancellor have gradually grown bolder since the 
appearance of Prince Buelow's book ^Deutsche 
Politik,' because this book is believed to be the 
opening of Buelow's campaign to oust the Chan- 
cellor and step back into the position he occupied 
until succeeded by Bethmann-Hollweg in 1909. 

^ ' The movement has grown more forceful since 
the Germa^n answer to President Wilson's ulti- 
matum was sent. The Conservatives accepted the 
German note as containing a conditional clause, 
and they have been waiting to see what steps the 
United States would take against England. 

^^ Within the past few days I have discussed the 
situation with leaders of several parties in the 
Eeichstag. A National Liberal member of the 
Reichstag, who was formerly a supporter of von 
Tirpitz, and the von Tirpitz submarine policies, 
said he thought Buelow's success showed that 
opposition to America was not dead. 

^^ ^Who is going to be your next President — 
Wilson or Hughes!' he asked, and then, without 
waiting for an answer, continued: 

** ^If it is Hughes he can be no worse than 



128 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Wilson. The worst tie can do is to declare war 
on Germany and certainly that would be prefer- 
able to the present American neutrality. 

** *If this should happen every one in our navy 
would shout and throw up his hat, for it would 
mean unlimited sea war against England. Our 
present navy is held in a net of notes. 

^' ^What do you think the United States could 
do! You could not raise an army to help the 
Allies. You could confiscate our ships in Ameri- 
can ports, but if you tried to use them to carry 
supplies and munitions to the Allies we would sink 
them. 

' ' ^ Carrying on an unlimited submarine war, we 
could sink 600,000 tons of shipping monthly, de- 
stroy the entire merchant fleets of the leading 
powers, paralyse England and win the war. Then 
we would start all over, build merchantmen faster 
than any nation, and regain our position as a lead- 
ing commercial power.' 

^^ Friends of the Chancellor still hope that 
President Wilson will take a strong stand against 
England, thereby greatly strengthening Beth- 
mann-HoUweg's position. At present the cam- 
paign against the Chancellor is closely connected 
with internal policies of the Conservatives and the 
big land owners. The latter are fighting Beth- 
mann-Hollweg because he promised the people, on 
behalf of the Kaiser, the enactment of franchise 
reforms after the war.'' 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 129 

Commenting on this despatch, the New York 
World said: 

*'Not long ago it was the fashion among the 
opponents of the Administration to jeer loudly at 
the impotent writing of notes. And even among 
the supporters of the Administration there grew 
an uneasy feeling that we had had notes ad 
nausecmi. 

^'Yet these plodding and undramatic notes 
arouse in German}^ a feeling very different from 
one of ridicule. The resentful respect for our 
notes is there admirably summed up by a mem- 
ber of the Reichstag who to the correspondent 
of the United Press exclaimed bitterly: ^Our 
present navy is held in "a net of notes.' 

^'Nets may not be so spectacular as knuckle- 
dusters, but they are slightly more civilised and 
generally more efficient.*' 

The National Liberal Reichstag member who 
was quoted was Dr. Gustav Stressemann. Stresse- 
mann is one of the worst reactionaries in Ger- 
many but he likes to pose as a progressive. He 
was one of the first men to suggest that the Reich- 
stag form a committee on foreign relations to 
consult with and have equal power of decision 
with the Foreign Office. 

For a great many months the Socialist depu- 
ties of the Prussian Diet have been demanding 
election reforms. Their demands were so insist- 



130 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

ent that over a year ago the Chancellor, when he 
read the Kaiser's address from the throne room 
in the residence palace in Berlin to the deputies, 
promised election reforms in Prussia — after the 
war. But during last summer the Socialists began 
to demand immediate election reforms. To fur- 
ther embarrass the Chancellor and the Govern- 
ment, the National Liberals made the same de- 
mands, knowing all the time that if the Govern- 
ment ever attempted it, they could swing the 
Reichstag majority against the proposal by tech- 
nicalities. 

Throughout the summer months the Govern- 
ment could not hush up the incessant discussion of 
war aims. More than one newspaper was sup- 
pressed for demanding peace or for demanding a 
statement of the Government's position in regard 
to Belgium and Northern France. The peace 
movement within Germany grew by leaps and 
bounds. The Socialists demanded immediate ac- 
tion by the Government. The Conservatives, the 
National Liberals and the Catholic party wanted 
peace but only the kind of a peace which Germany 
could force upon the Entente. The Chancellor and 
other German leaders tried again throughout the 
summer and fall to get the outside world inter- 
ested in peace but at this time the English and 
French attacks on the Somme were engaging the 
attention and the resources of the whole world. 

Before these conflicting movements within Ger- 
many can be understood one must know some- 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 131 

thing of the organisation of Germany in war 
time. 

When the military leaders of Germany saw 
that the possibility of capturing Paris or of de- 
stroying London was small and that a German 
victory, which would fasten Teutonic peace terms 
on the rest of the world, was almost impossible, 
they turned their eyes to Austria-Hungary, Bul- 
garia, the Balkans and Turkey. Friederich 
Naumann, member of the Progressive Party of 
the Reichstag, wrote a book on ^ ' Central Europe, ' ' 
describing a great nation stretching from the 
North Sea to Bagdad, including Germany, all of 
Austria- Hungary, parts of Serbia and Roumania 
and Turkey, with Berlin as the Capital. It was 
toward this goal which the Kaiser turned the 
forces of Germany at his command. If Germany 
could not rule the world, if Germany could not 
conquer the nine nations which the Director of 
the Post and Telegraph had lined up on the 2nd 
of August, 1914, then Germany could at least 
conquer the Dual Monarchy, the Balkans and 
Turkey, and even under these circumstances come 
out of the war a greater nation than she entered 
it. But to accomplish this purpose one thing 
had to be assured. That was the control of the 
armies and navies and the foreign policies of these 
governments. The old Kaiser Franz Josef was a 
man who guarded everything he had as jealously 
as a baby guards his toys. At one time when it 
was suggested to the aged monarch that Germany 



132 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

and Austria-Hungary could establish a great 
kingdom of Poland as a buffer nation, if he would 
only give up Galicia as one of the states of this 
kingdom, he replied in his childish fashion: 

^'What, those Prussians want to take another 
pearl out of my crown?" 

In June the Austro-Hungarian General Staff 
conducted an offensive against Italy in the Tren- 
tino with more success than the Germans had 
anticipated. But the Austrians had not calcu- 
lated upon Eussia. In July General Brusiloff 
attacked the Austrian forces in the neighbourhood 
of Lusk, succeeded in persuading or bribing a 
Bohemian army corps to desert and started 
through the Austrian positions like a flood over 
sloping land. Brusiloif not only took several hun- 
dred thousand prisoners. He not only broke 
clear through the Austrian lines but he thor- 
oughly demoralised and destroyed the Austrian 
army as a unit in the world war. Von Hinden- 
burg, who had been made Chief of the German 
General Staff, was compelled to send thousands 
of troops to the Wohlynian battlefields to stop 
the Eussian invasion. But von Hindenburg did 
not look with any degree of satisfaction upon the 
possibility of such a thing happening again 'and 
informed the Kaiser that he would continue as 
Chief of the General Staff only upon condition 
that he be made chief of all armies allied to Ger- 
many. At a Conference at Great Headquarters 
at Pless, in Silicia, where offices were moved from 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 133 

France as soon as the Field Marshal took charge, 
Hindenburg was made the leader of all the armed 
forces in Central Europe. Thus by one stroke, 
really by the aid of Russia, Germany succeeded in 
conquering Austria-Hungary and in taking away 
from her command all of the forces, naval and 
military, which she had. At the same time the 
Bulgarian and Turkish armies were placed at the 
disposal of von Hindenburg. So far so good for 
the Prussians. 

But there w^ere still some independent forces 
left wdthin the Central Powers. Hungary was not 
content to do the bidding of Prussia. Hungarians 
were not ready to live under orders from Berlin. 
Even as late as a few months ago when the Ger- 
man Minister of the Interior called a conference 
in Berlin to mobilise all the food within the Cen- 
tral Powers, the Hungarians refused to join a 
scheme which would rob them of food they had 
jealously guarded and saved since the beginning 
of the war. 

In the Dual Monarchy there are many freedom 
loving people who are longing for a deliverer. 
Hungary at one time feared Russia but only be- 
cause of the Czar. The real and most powerful 
democratic force among the Teutonic allies is lo- 
cated there in Budapest. I know of no city out- 
side of the United States where the people have 
such love of freedom and where public opinion 
plays such a big role. Budapest, even in war 
times, is one of the most delightful cities in 



134 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Europe and Hungary, even as late as last Decem- 
ber, was not contaminated by Prussian ideas. I 
saw Russian prisoners of war walking through 
the streets and mingling with the Hungarian 
soldiers and people. American Consul General 
Coffin informed me that there were seven thou- 
sand Allied subjects in Budapest who were undis- 
turbed. English and French are much more pop- 
ular than Germans. One day on my first visit in 
Budapest I asked a policeman in front of the 
Hotel Ritz in German, '^ Where is the Reichstag?" 
He shook his head and went on about his business 
regulating the traffic at the street corner. Then 
I asked him half in English and half in French 
where the Parliament was. 

With a broad smile he said: ^^Ah, Monsieur, 
voila, this street your right, vis a vis." Not a 
word of German would he speak. 

After the Allied offensive began on the Somme 
the old friends of von Tirpitz, assisted by Prince 
von Buelow, started an offensive against the 
Chancellor, with renewed vigour. This time they 
were determined to oust him at all costs. They 
sent emissaries to the Rhine Valley, which is 
dominated by the Krupp ammunition factories. 
These emissaries began by attacking the Chan- 
cellor's attitude towards the United States. They 
pointed out that Germany could not possibly win 
the war unless she defeated England, and it was 
easy for any German to see that the only way 
England could be attacked was from the seas ; that 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 135 

as long as England had her fleet or her merchant 
ships she could continue the war and continue to 
supply the Allies. It was pointed out to tire am- 
munition makers, also, that they were already 
fighting the United States ; that the United States 
was sending such enormous supplies to the En- 
tente, that unless the submarines were used to stop 
these supplies Germany would most certainly be 
defeated on land. And, it was explained that a 
defeat on land meant not only the defeat of the 
German army but the defeat of the ammunition 
interests. 

From April to December, 1916, was also the 
period of pamphleteering. Every one who could 
write a pamphlet, or could publish one, did so. 
The censorship had prohibited so many people 
and so many organisations from expressing their 
views publicly that they chose this method of cir- 
culating their ideas privately. The pamphlets 
could be printed secretly and distributed through 
the mails so as to avoid both the censors and the 
Government. So every one in Germany began to 
receive documents and pamphlets about all the 
ails and complaints within Germany. About the 
only people who did not do this were the Social- 
ists. The *^Alt-Deutsch Verband,'' which was an 
organisation of the gTeat industrial leaders of 
Germany, had been bitterly attacked by the Berlin 
Tagehlatt but when the directors wanted to pub- 
lish their reply the censors prohibited it. So, the 
Alt-Deutsch Verband issued a pamphlet and sent 



136 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

it broadcast throughout Germany. In the mean- 
time the Chancellor and the Government realised 
that unless something was done to combat these 
secret forces which were undermining the Govern- 
ment's influence, that there would be an eruption 
in Germany which might produce serious results. 

Throughout this time the Socialist party was 
having troubles of its own. Liebknecht was in 
prison but there was a little group of radicals who 
had not forgotten it. They wanted the Socialist 
party as a whole to do something to free Lieb- 
knecht. The party had been split before the ad- 
vance of last summer so efforts were made to 
unite the two factions. At a well attended con- 
ference in the Keichstag building they agi'eed to 
forget old differences and join forces in support 
of the Government until winter, when it was 
hoped peace could be made. 

The Socialist party at various times during the 
war has had a difficult time in agreeing on govern- 
ment measures. While the Socialists voted unani- 
mously for war credits at the beginning, a year 
afterward many of them had changed their minds 
and had begun to wonder whether, after all, they 
had not made a mistake. This was the issue which 
brought about the first split in the Socialists' 
ranks. When it came time in 1916 to vote further 
credits to the Government the Socialists held a 
caucus. After three da^^s of bitter wrangling the 
ranks split. One group headed by Scheidemann 
decided to support the Government and another 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 137 

group with Herr Wolfgang Heine as tlie leader, 
decided to vote against tlie war loans. 

Scheidemann, who is the most capable and most 
powerful Socialist in Germany, carried with him 
the majority of the delegates and was supported 
by the greater part of public opinion. Heine, 
however, had the support of men like Dr. Haase 
and Eduard Bernstein who had considerable in- 
fluence with the public but who were not organ- 
isers or men capable of aggressive action, like 
Scheidemann. As far as affecting the Govern- 
ment's plans were concerned the Socialist split 
did not amount to much. In Germany there is 
such a widespread fear of the Government and the 
police that even the most radical Socialists hesi- 
tate to oppose the Government. In war time Ger- 
many is under complete control of the military 
authorities and even the Reichstag, which is sup- 
posed to be a legislative body, is in reaUty during 
war times only a closed corporation which does 
the bidding of the Government. The attitude of 
the Reichstag on any question is not determined 
at the party caucuses nor during sessions. Im- 
portant decisions are always arrived at at Great 
Headquarters between the Chancellor and the 
military leaders. Then the Chancellor returns to 
Berlin, summons the party leaders to his palace, 
explains what the Government desires and, with- 
out asking the leaders for their support, tells them 
that is what V07i Hindenbiirg expects. They know 
there is no choice left to them. Scheidemamj 



138 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

always attends these conferences as the Socialist 
representative because the Chancellor has never 
recognised the so-called Socialist Labour Party 
which is made up of Socialist radicals who want 
peace and who have reached the point when they 
can no longer support the Government. 

One night at the invitation of an editor of one 
of Berlin's leading newspapers, who is a Socialist 
radical, I attended a secret session of the Socialist 
Labour Party. At this meeting there were pres- 
ent three members of the Reichstag, the President 
of one of Germany's leading business organisa- 
tions, two newspaper editors, one labour agitator 
who had been travelling to industrial centres to 
mobilise the forces which were opposed to a con- 
tinuation of the war, and a rather well known 
Socialist writer who had been inspiring some anti- 
Government pamphlets which were printed in 
Switzerland and sent by mail to Germany. One 
of the business men present had had an audience 
of the Kaiser and he reported what the monarch 
told him about the possibilities of peace. The re- 
port was rather encouraging to the Socialists be- 
cause the Kaiser said he would make peace as 
soon as there was an opportunity. But these 
Socialists did not have much faith in the Kaiser's 
promises and jokingly asked the business man if 
the Kaiser did not decorate him as a result of the 
audience ! 

The real object of this meeting was to discuss 
means of acquainting the German people with the 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 139 

American organisation entitled the League to 
Enforce Peace. An American business man, who 
was a charter member of the American organisa- 
tion, was there to explain the purposes of the 
League. The meeting decided upon the publica- 
tion in as many German newspapers as possible 
of explanatory articles. The newspaper editor 
present promised to prepare them and urged their 
publication in various journals. The first article 
appeared in Die Welt Am Montag, one of the 
weekly newspapers of Berlin. It was copied by a 
number of progressive newspapers throughout the 
Empire but when the attention of the military and 
naval authorities was called to this propaganda 
an order was issued prohibiting any newspaper 
from making any reference to the League to En- 
force Peace. The anti- American editorial writers 
were inspired to write brief notices to the effect 
that the League was in reality to be a League 
against Germany supported by England and the 
United States. 

Throughout the summer and fall there appeared 
in various newspapers, including the influential 
Frankfurter Zeitung, inspired articles about the 
possibilities of annexing the industrial centres and 
important harbours of Belgium. In Munich and 
Leipsic a book by Dr. Schumacher, of Bonn Uni- 
versity, was published, entitled, ^^iVntwerp, Its 
World Position and Importance for Germany's 
Economic Life.'' Another writer named Ulrich 
Rauscher wrote a number of newspaper and 



140 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

magazine articles for the purpose of showing that 
Germany would need Antwerp after this war in 
order to successfully compete with Holland, Eng- 
land and France in world commerce. He figured 
that the diif erence between the cost of transporta- 
tion from the Rhine Valley industrial cities to 
Antwerp and the cost of transportation from the 
Rhine Valley to Hamburg and Bremen would be 
great enough as to enable German products to be 
sold in America for less money than products of 
Germany's enemies. 

These articles brought up the old question of 
the ^'freedom of the seas.'' Obviously, if the 
Allies were to control the seas after the war, as 
they had during the war, Germany could make 
no plans for the re-establishment of her world 
commerce unless there were some assurances that 
her merchant fleet would be as free on the high 
seas as that of any other nation. During the war 
Germany had talked a gTeat deal about the free- 
dom of the seas. When the Lusitania was tor- 
pedoed von Jagow said in an interview that Ger- 
many was fighting for the free seas and that by 
attacking England's control, Germany was act- 
ing in the interests of the whole world. But Ger- 
many was really not sincere in what she said 
about having the seas free. What Germany really 
desired was not freedom of the seas in peace time 
because the seas had been free before the war. 
What Germany wanted was free seas in war time, 
— freedom for her own merchant ships to go from 




OBuCKCtEJ KtftUHN •taaaiiiii, BCiiu* rmm 



nioT «tc.Kiisciiei» 







-9^ 



THIS IS THE PHOTOGRAPH OF VON HINDENBURC 
WHICH EVERY GERMAN HAS IX HIS HOME 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 141 

Germany to any part of the world and return 
with everything" except absolute contraband. 
Germany's object was to keep from building a 
navy great enough to protect her merchant fleet 
in order that she might devote all her energies to 
army organisation. But the freedom of the seas 
was a popular phrase. Furthermore it explained 
to the German people why their submarine war- 
fare was not inhuman because it was really fight- 
ing for the freedom of all nations on the high 
seas! 

While these public discussions were going on, 
the fight on the Chancellor began to grow. It 
was evident that when the Reichstag met again 
in September that there would be bitter and per- 
haps a decisive fight on von Bethmann-Hollweg. 
The division in Germany became so pronounced 
that people forgot for a time the old party lines 
and the newspapers and party leaders spoke of 
the ^'Bethmann parties" and the **von Tirpitz 
party.'' Whether the submarine should be used 
ruthlessly against all shipping was the issue which 
divided public sentiment. The same democratic 
forces which had been supporting the Chancellor 
in other fights again lined up with the Foreign 
Office. The reactionaries supported Major Bas- 
sermann, who really led the fight against the 
Chancellor. During this period the Chancellor 
and the Foreign Office saw that the longer the war 
lasted the stronger the von Tirpitz party would 
become because the people were growing more des- 



142 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

perate and were enthused by the propaganda cry 
of the Navy, ^^DoAvn with England.'^ The Chan- 
cellor and the Foreign Office tried once more to 
get the world to talk about peace. After the presi- 
dential nominations in America the press began to 
discuss the possibilities of American peace inter- 
vention. Every one believed that the campaigTi 
and elections in America would have an important 
effect on the prospects of peace. Theodore Wolff, 
editor of the Berlin TagehlaU, who was the Chan- 
cellor's chief supporter in newspaper circles, be- 
gan the publication of a series of articles to ex- 
plain that in the event of the election of Charles 
E. Hughes, Germany would be able to count upon 
more assistance from America and upon peace. 
At the time the Allies were pounding away at the 
Somme and every effort was being made to bring 
about some kind of peace discussions when these 
battles were over. 

On September 20th a convention of Socialists 
was held in Berlin for the purpose of uniting the 
Socialist party in support of the Chancellor. The 
whole country was watching the Socialist discus- 
sions because every one felt that the Socialist 
party represented the real opinion of the people. 
After several days of discussion all factional dif- 
ferences were patched up and the Socialists were 
ready to present a solid front when the fight came 
in the Reichstag on September 28th. On the 27th, 
Berlin hotels began to buzz with excitement over 
the possibilities of overthrowing the Chancellor. 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 143 

The jBght was led by the National Liberals and 
Centre Party groups. It was proposed by Dr. 
Coerting, an industrial leader from Hannover, to 
move a vote of lack of confidence in the Chan- 
cellor. Coerting was supported by the big ammu- 
nition interests and by the von Tirpitz crowd. 
Before the Reichstag convened the Chancellor 
went to Great Headquarters for a final conference 
with the Kaiser and Field Marshal von Hinden- 
burg. Before he left it looked as if the Chancellor 
would be overthrown. But when he returned he 
summoned the Reichstag leaders who were sup- 
porting him and several editors of Liberal news- 
papers. The Chancellor told them that von Hin- 
denburg would support him. The next day edi- 
torials appeared in a nu'mber of newspapers, say- 
ing that von Hindenburg and the Chancellor were 
united in their ideas. This was the most success- 
ful strategic move the Chancellor had made, for 
the public had such great confidence in von Hin- 
denburg that when it was learned that he was 
opposed to von Tirpitz the backbone of opposition 
to the Chancellor was broken. On the 28th as von 
Bethmann-Hollweg appeared in the Reichstag, in- 
stead of facing a hostile and belligerent assembly, 
he faced members who were ready to support him 
in anything he did. The Chancellor, however, 
realised that he could take some of the thunder 
out of the opposition by making a strong state- 
ment against England. ^^Down with England,'' 
the popular cry, was the keynote of the Chan- 



144 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

cellor's remarks. In this one speech he succeeded 
in uniting for a time at least public sentiment and 
the political parties in support of the Govern- 
ment. 

A few days afterward I saw Major Basser- 
mann at his office in the Reichstag and asked him 
whether the campaign for an unlimited submarine 
warfare would be resumed after the action of the 
Reichstag in expressing confidence in the Chan- 
cellor. He said: 

^'That must be decided by the Foreign Office, 
the Ministry of Marine and the General Staff. 
England is our chief enemy and we must recog- 
nise this and defeat her." 

With his hands in his pocket, his face looking 
do^vn, he paced his office and began a bitter de- 
nunciation of the neutrality of the United States. 
I asked him whether he favoured the submarine 
warfare even if it brought about a break with the 
United States. 

^^We wish to live in peace and friendship with 
America," he began, ^^but undoubtedly there is 
bitter feeling here because American supplies and 
ammunition enable our enemies to continue the 
war. If America should succeed in forcing Eng- 
land to obey international law, restore freedom 
of the seas and proceed with American energy 
against England's brutalisation of neutrals, it 
would have a decisive influence on the political 
situation between the two countries. If America 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 145 

does not do this then we must do it with our sub- 
marines. ' ' 

In October I was invited by the Foreign Office 
to go with a group of correspondents to Essen, 
Cologne and the Rhine Valley Industrial centres. 
In Essen I met Baron von Bodenhausen and other 
directors of Krupps. In Dusseldorf at the In- 
dustrie Klub I dined with the steel magnates of 
Germany and at Homburg-on-the-Rhine I saw 
August Thyssen, one of the richest men in Ger- 
many and the man who owtis one-tenth of Ger- 
many's coal and iron fields. The most impressive 
thing about this journey was what these men said 
about the necessity for unlimited warfare. Every 
man I met was opposed to the Chancellor. They 
hated him because he delayed mobilisation at the 
beginning of the war. They stated that they had 
urged the invasion of Belgium because if Belgium 
had not been invaded immediately France could 
have seized the Rhine Valley and made it impos- 
sible for Germany to manufacture war munitions 
and thereby to fight a war. They said they were 
in favour of an unlimited, ruthless submarine 
warfare against England and all ships going to 
the British Isles. Their opinions were best rep- 
resented in an inspired editorial appearing in the 
Rheinische Westfdlische Zeitung, in which it was 
stated : 

*^The war must be fought to a finish. Either 
Germany or England must win and the interests 



146 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

here on the Rhine are ready to fight until Ger- 
many wins." 

'^Do yoii think Germany wants war with 
America?" I asked Thyssen. 

^ ^ Never ! ' ' was his emphatic response. ^ ' First, 
because ive have enemies enough, and, secondly, 
because in peace times, our relations with America 
are always most friendly. We want them to con- 
tinue so after the war." 

Thyssen 's remarks could be taken on their face 
value were it not for the fact that the week before 
we arrived in these cities General Ludendorf, von 
Hindenburg's chief assistant and co-worker, was 
there to get the industrial leaders to manufacture 
more ammunition. Von Falkenhayn had made 
many enemies in this section because he cut down 
the ammunition manufacturing until these men 
were losing money. So the first thing von Hin- 
denburg did was to double all orders for ammuni- 
tion and war supplies and to send Ludendorf to 
the industrial centres to make peace with the men 
who were opposed to the Government. 

Thus from May to November German politics 
went through a period of transformation. No one 
knew exactly what would happen, — there were so 
many conflicting opinions. Political parties, in- 
dustrial leaders and the press were so divided it 
was evident that something would have to be done 
or the German political organisation would strike 
a rock and go to pieces. The Socialists were still 



THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION 147 

demanding election reforms during the war. The 
National Liberals were intriguing for a Reichstag 
Committee to have equal authority with the For- 
eign Office in dealing with all matters of interna- 
tional affairs. The landowners, who were losing 
money because the Government was confiscating 
so much food, were not only criticising von Beth- 
mann-Hollweg but holding back as much food as 
they could for higher prices. The industrial lead- 
ers, who had been losing money because von 
Falkenhayn had decreased ammunition orders, 
were only partially satisfied by von Hindenburg's 
step because they realised that unless the war was 
intensified the Government would not need such 
supplies indefinitely. They saw, too, that the atti- 
tude Qf President Wilson had so injured what 
little standing they still had in the neutral world 
that unless Germany won the war in a decisive 
way, their world connections would disappear for- 
ever and they would be forced to begin all over 
after the war. Faced by this predicament, they 
demanded a ruthless submarine warfare against 
all shipping in order that not only England but 
every other power should suffer, because the more 
ships and property of the enemies destroyed the 
more their chances with the rest of the world 
would be equalised when the war was over. Food 
conditions were becoming worse, the people were 
becoming more dissatisfied; losses on the battle- 
fields were touching nearly every family. Depres- 



148 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

sion was growing. Every one felt that something 
had to be done and done immediately. 

The press referred to these months of turmoil 
as a period of ''new orientation.'^ It was a time 
of readjustment which did not reach a climax 
until December twelfth when the Chancellor pro- 
posed peace conferences to the Allies. 



WHAT YOU CANNOT EAT OR DRINK 

Foodstuffs Which Abb Completely Exhausted in Germany 

1. Rice. 12. Nuts. 

2. Coffee. 13. Candy (a very limited num- 

3. Tea. ber of persons can buy 

4. Cocoa. one-quarter of a pound 

5. Chocolate. about once a week). 

6. Olive oil. 14. Malted milk. 

7. Cream. 15. Beer made of either malt or 

8. Fruit flavorings. hops. 

9. Canned soups or soup cubes. 16. Caviar. 

10. Syrups. 17. Ice cream. 

11. Dried vegetables, beans, peas, 18. Macaroni. 

etc. 

WHAT YOU MAY EAT 

Food Obtainable ONLY by Cards 

1. Bread, 1,900 grams per week per person. 

2. Meat, 250 grams (% pound) per week per head. 

3. Eggs, 1 per person every two weeks. 

4. Butter, 90 grams per week per person. 

5. Milk, 1 quart daily only for children under ten and invalids. 

6. Potatoes, formerly 9 pounds per week ; lately in many parts 

of Germany no potatoes were available. 

7. Sugar, formerly 2 pounds per month, now 4 pounds, but this 

will not continue long. 

8. Marmalade, or jam, % of a pound every month. 

9. Noodles, % a pound per person a month. 

10. Sardines, or canned fish, small box per month. 

11. Saccharine (a coal tar product substitute for sugar), about 25 

small tablets a month. 

12. Oatmeal, % of a pound per month for adults or 1 pound per month 

for children under twelve years. 

WHAT YOU CAN EAT 
Foods Which Every One with Money Can Buy 

1. Geese, costing 8 to 10 marks per pound ($1.60 to $2 per pound). 

2. Wild game, rabbits, ducks, deer, etc. 

3. Smuggled meat, such as. ham and bacon, for $2.50 per pound. 

4. Vegetables, carrots, spinach, onions, cabbage, beets. 

5. Apples, lemons, oranges. 

6. Bottled oil made from seeds and roots for cooking purposes, cost- 

ing $5 per pound. 

7. Vinegar. 

8. Fresh fish. 

9. Fish sausage. 

10. Pickles. 

11. Duck, chicken and geese heads, feet and wings. 

12. Black crows. 

THE FOOD SITUATION AT A GLANCE 



CHAPTEE VII 

THE BUBBLING ECOISTOMIC VOLCANO 

WHEiSr I entered Germany in 1915 there was 
plenty of food everywhere and prices 
were normal. But a year later the situa- 
tion had changed so that the number of food cards 
— Grermany's economic barometer — had increased 
eight times. March and April of 1916 were the 
worst months in the year and a great many people 
had difficulty in getting enough food to eat. There 
was growing dissatisfaction with the way the Gov- 
ernment was handling the food problem but the 
people 's hope was centred upon the next harvest. 
In April and May the submarine issue and the 
American crisis turned public attention from 
food to politics. From July to October the Somme 
battles kept the people's minds centred upon mili- 
tary operations. While the scarcity of food be- 
came greater the Government, through inspired 
articles in the press, informed the people that the 
harvest was so big that there would be no more 
food difficulties. 

Germany began to pay serious attention to the 
food situation, when early in the year, Adolph von 

150 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 151 

Batocki, the president of East Prussia and a big 
land owner, was made food dictator. At the same 
time there were organised various government 
food departments. There was an Imperial Bu- 
reau for collecting fats; another to take charge 
of the meat supply; another to control the milk 
and another in charge of the vegetables and fruit. 
Germany became practically a socialistic state and 
in this way the Government kept abreast of the 
growth of Socialism among the people. The 
most important step the Government took was to 
organise the Zentral Einkaufgesellschaft, popu- 
larly known as the ^^Z. E. G.^' The first object 
of this organisation was to purchase food in neu- 
tral comitries. Previously German merchants 
had been going to Holland, Switzerland and the 
Scandinavian countries to buy supplies. These 
merchants had been bidding against each other 
in order to get products for their concerns. In 
this way food was made much more expensive 
than it would have been had one purchaser gone 
outside of Germany. So the Government pro- 
hibited all firms from buying food abroad. Trav- 
elling agents of the *^Z. E. G." went to these coun- 
tries and bought all of the supplies available at a 
jBjxed price. Then these resold to German dealers 
at cost. 

Such drastic measures were necessitated by the 
public demand that every one share alike. The 
Government found it extremely difficult to control 
the food. Farmers and rich landowners insisted 



152 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

upon slaughtering their own pigs for their own 
use. They insisted upon eating the eggs their 
chickens laid, or, upon sending them through the 
mail to friends at high prices, thereby evading the 
egg card regulations. But the Government 
stepped in and farmers were prohibited from 
killing their own cattle and from sending foods 
to friends and special customers. Farmers had 
to sell everything to the ^'Z. E. G.'' That was an- 
other result of State Socialism. 

The optimistic statements of Herr von Batocki 
about the food outlook led the people to believe 
that by fall conditions would be greatly improved 
but instead of becoming more plentiful food sup- 
plies became more and more organised until all 
food was upon an absolute ration basis. 

'^Although the crops were good this year, there 
will be so much organisation that food will spoil,'' 
said practically every German. Batocki 's method 
of confiscating food did cause a great deal to 
spoil and the public blamed him any time any- 
thing disappeared from the market. One day a 
carload of plums was shipped from Werder, the 
big fruit district near Berlin, to the capital. The 
**Z. E. G." confiscated it but did not sell the goods 
immediately to the merchants and the plums 
spoiled. Before this was found out, a crowd of 
women surrounded the train one day, which was 
standing on a side track, broke into a car and 
found most of the plums in such rotten condition 
they could not be used. So they painted on the 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 153 

sides of the ear : ' ' This is the kind of plum jam 
the ^Z. E. G.' makes. ^' 

There was a growing scarcity of all other sup- 
plies, too. The armies demanded every possible 
labouring man and woman so even the canning 
factories had to close and food which formerly 
was canned had to be eaten while fresh or it 
spoiled. Even the private German family, which 
was accustomed to canning food, had to forego 
this practice because of a lack of tin cans, jars 
and rubber bands. 

The food depots are by far the most successful 
undertaking of the Government. In Cologne and 
Berlin alone close to 500,000 poor are being fed 
daily by municipal kitchens. Last October I went 
through the Cologne food department with the 
director. The city has rented a number of large 
vacant factoiy buildings and made them into 
kitchens. Municipal buyers go through the coun- 
try to buy meat and vegetables. This is shipped 
to Cologne, and in these kitchens it is prepared by 
women workers, under the direction of volunteers. 

A stew is cooked each day and sold for 42 pfen- 
nigs (about eight cents) a quart. The people must 
give up their potato, fat and meat cards to obtain 
it. In Berlin and all other large cities, the same 
system is used. In one kitchen in Berlin, at the 
main market hall, 80,000 quarts a day are pre- 
pared. 

In Cologne this food is distributed through the 
city streets by municipal wagons, and the people 



154 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

get it almost boiling hot, ready to eat. Were it 
not for tliese food depots there would be many 
thousands of people who would starve because 
they could not buy and cook such nourishing food 
for the price the city asks. These food kitchens 
have been in use now almost a year, and, while the 
poor are obtaining food here, they are becoming 
very tired of the supply, because they must eat 
stews every day. They can have nothing fried or 
roasted. 

In addition to these kitchens the Government 
has opened throughout Germany ^'mittlestand 
kueche," a restaurant for the middle classes. 
Here government employees, with small wages, 
the poor who do not keep house and others with 
little means can obtain a meal for 10 cents, con- 
sisting of a stew and a dessert. But it is very 
difficult for people to live on this food. Most 
every one who is compelled by circumstances to 
eat here is losing weight and feels under-nour- 
ished all the time. 

A few months ago, after one of my secretaries 
had been called to the army, I employed another. 
He had been earning only $7 a week and had to 
support his wife. On this money they ate at the 
middle class cafes. In six months he had lost 
twenty pounds. 

Because the food is so scarce and because it 
lacks real nourishment people eat all the time. 
It used to be said before the war that the Ger- 
mans were the biggest eaters in Europe — that 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 155 

they ate seven meals a day. The blockade has 
not made them less eaters, for they eat every few 
hours all day long now, but because the food lacks 
fats and sugars, they need more food. 

Eestaurants are doing big business because 
after one has eaten a ''meaP' at any leading Ber- 
lin hotel at 1 o'clock in the afternoon one is hun- 
gry by 3 o'clock and ready for another ^'meal." 

Last winter the Socialists of Munich, who saw 
that the rich were having plenty of food and that 
the poor were existing as best they could in food 
kitchens, wrote Chancellor von Bethmann-Holl- 
weg and demanded the immediate confiscation of 
all food in Germany, even that in private resi- 
dences. 

The Socialists ' demandVas, as are most others, 
thrown into the waste basket because men like the 
Chancellor, President Batocki, of the Food De- 
partment, wealthy bankers, statesmen and army 
generals have country estates where they have 
stored food for an indefinite period. They know 
that no matter how hard the blockade pinches the 
people it won't starve them. 

When the Chancellor invites people to his pal- 
ace he has real coffee, white bread, plenty of po- 
tatoes, cake and meat. Being a government offi- 
cial he can get what he wants from the food de- 
partment. So can other officials. Therefore, they 
were willing to disregard the demand of the Ba- 
varian Socialists. 

But the Socialists, although they don't get pub- 



156 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

licity when they start something, don't give up 
until they accomplish what they set out to do. 
First, they enlisted the Berlin Socialists, and the 
report went around to people that the rich were 
going to Copenhagen and bringing back food 
while the poor starved. So the Government had 
to prohibit all food from coming into Germany 
by way of Denmark unless it was imported by the 
Government. 

That was the first success of the Bavarian So- 
cialists. Now they have had another. Batocki is 
reported as having announced that all food sup- 
plies will be confiscated. The Socialists are re- 
sponsible. 

Excepting the very wealthy and those who have 
stored quantities of food for the ^' siege,'' every 
German is undernourished. A great many people 
are starving. The head physician of the Kaiserin 
Augusta Victoria Hospital, in Berlin, stated that 
80,000 children died in Berlin in 1916 from lack of 
food. The LoUal-Anzeiger printed the item and 
the Foreign Office censor prohibited me from 
sending it to New York. 

But starvation under the blockade is a slow 
process, and it has not yet reached the army. 
When I was on the Somme battlefields last No- 
vember and in Rumania in December the soldiers 
were not only well fed, but they had luxuries which 
their families at home did not have. Two years 
ago there was so much food at home the women 
sent food boxes to the front. To-day the soldiers 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 157 

not only send but carry quantities of food from 
the front to tlieir liomes. The army has more 
than the people. 

It is almost impossible to say whether Ger- 
many, as a nation, can be starved into submission. 
Everything depends upon the next harvest, the 
length of the war and future military operations. 
The German Government, I think, can make the 
people hold out until the coming harvest, unless 
there is a big military defeat. In their present 
undernourished condition the public could not 
face a defeat. If the war ends this year Germany 
will not be so star^^ed that she will accept any 
peace terms. But if the war continues another 
year or two Germany will have to give up. 

I entered Germany at the beginning of the 
Allied blockade when one could purchase any kind 
and any quantity of food in Germany. Two years 
later, when I left, there were at least eighteen 
foodstuffs which could not be purchased any- 
where, and there were twelve kinds of food which 
could be obtained only by government cards. 
That is what the Allied blockade did to the food 
supplies. It made Germany look like a grocery 
store after a closing out sale. 

Suppose in the United States you wanted the 
simplest breakfast — coffee and bread and butter. 
Suppose you wanted a light luncheon of eggs or a 
sandwich, tea and fruit. Suppose for dinner you 
wanted a plain menu of soup, meat, vegetables and 
dessert. At any grocery or lunch counter you 



158 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

could get not only these plain foods, but anything 
else you wanted. 

Not so in Germany! For breakfast you can- 
not have pure coffee, and you can have only a 
very small quantity of butter with your butter 
card. Hotels serve a coffee substitute, but most 
people prefer nothing. For luncheon you may 
have an egg, but only one day during two weeks. 
Hotels still serve a weak, highly colored tea and 
apples or oranges. For dinner you may have 
soup without any meat or fat in it. Soups are 
just a mixture of water and vegetables. Two 
days a week you can get a small piece of meat 
with a meat card. Other days you can eat boiled 
fish. 

People who keep house, of course, have more 
food, because as a rule they have been storing 
supplies. Take the Christian Scientists as an 
instance. Members of this Church have organ- 
ised a semi-official club. Members buy all the 
extra food possible. Then they divide and store 
away what they want for the ^^ siege" — the time 
when food will be scarcer than it is to-day. 

Two women practitioners in Berlin, w^ho live 
together, bought thirty pounds of butter from an 
American who had brought it in from Copen- 
hagen. They canned it and planned to make this 
butter last one year. Until a few weeks ago peo- 
ple with money could go to Switzerland, Holland 
and Denmark and bring back food with them, 
either with or without permission. Some wealthy 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 159 

citizens who import machinery and other things 
from outside neutral countries have their agents 
smuggle food at the same time. 

While the Dutch, Danish and Swiss govern- 
ments try to stop smuggling, there is always some 
going through. The rich have the money to bribe 
border officers and inspectors. When I was in 
Dtisseldorf, last October, I met the owner of a 
number of canal boats, who shipped coal and iron 
products from the Ehine Valley to Denmark. He 
told me his canal barges brought back food from 
Copenhagen every trip and that the border au- 
thorities were not very careful in making an in- 
vestigation of his boats. 

In Dtisseldorf, too, as well as in Cologne, busi- 
ness men spoke about the food they got from 
Belgium. They did not get great quantities, of 
course, but the leakage was enough to enable them 
to live better than those who had to depend upon 
the food in Germany. 

When the food supplies began to decrease the 
Government instituted the card system of distri- 
bution. Bread cards had been very successful, so 
the authorities figured that meat, butter, potato 
and other cards would be equally so. But their 
calculations were wrong. 

When potato cards were issued each person was 
given nine pounds a week. But the potato har- 
vest was a big failure. The supply was so much 
less than the estimates that seed potatoes had to 
be used to keep the people satisfied. Even then 



160 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

the supply was short, and the quantity to be sold 
on potato cards was cut to three pounds a week. 
Then transportation difficulties arose, and pota- 
toes spoiled before they reached Berlin, Munich, 
Hamburg, Dresden, Leipsic and other large cities. 

The same thing happened when the Government 
confiscated the fruit crop last year. 

One day I was asked on the telephone whether 
I wanted to buy an 11-pound ham. I asked to have 
it sent to my office immediately. When it came 
the price was $2.50 a pound. I sent the meat back 
and told the man I would not pay such a price. 

' ^ That 's all right, ' ' he replied. ^ ' Dr. Stein and 
a dozen other people will pay me that price. I 
sent it to you because I wanted to help you out. ' ^ 

Dr. Ludwig Stein, one of the editors of the 
Vossiche Zeitung, paid the price and ordered all 
he could get for the same money. 

When I left Berlin the Government had issued 
an order prohibiting the sale of all canned vege- 
tables and fruit. It was explained that this food 
would be sold when the present supplies of other 
foods were exhausted. There were in Berlin many 
thousand cans, but no one can say how long such 
food will last. 

When Americans ask, **How long can Germany 
hold outr' I reply, *^As long as the German Gov- 
ernment can satisfy the vanity and stimulate the 
nerves of the people, and as long as the people 
permit the Government to do the nation ^s think- 
ing. ' ' 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 161 

How long a time that will be no one can say. 
It was formerly believed that whenever a nation 
reached the limit wliich Germany has reached it 
would crumple up. But Germany fails to crumple. 
Instead of breaking up, she fights harder and 
more desperately. Why can she do this! The 
answer is simple: Because the German people 
believe in their Government and the Government 
knows that as long as it can convince the people 
that it is winning the war the people will ^ght. 

Germany is to-day in the position of a man on 
the verge of a nervous breakdown; in the posi- 
tion of a man who is under-nourished, who is de- 
pressed, who is weighed down by colossal bur- 
dens, who is brooding over the loss of friends and 
relatives, but of a man who feels that his future 
health and happiness depend upon his ability to 
hold out until the crisis passes. 

If a physician were called in to prescribe for 
such a patient his first act would in all probability 
be to stimulate this man's hope, to make him 
believe that if he would only *'hold ouf he would 
pass the crisis successfully. But no physician 
could say that his patient could stand it for one 
week, a month or a year more. The doctor would 
have to gamble upon that man's nerves. He 
would have to stimulate him daily, perhaps 
hourly. 

So it is with the German nation. The country 
is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Men 
and women, business men and generals, long ago 



162 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

lost their patience. They are under-nourished. 
They are depressed, distressed, suffering and 
anxious for peace. It is as true of the Hamburg- 
American Line directors as it is true of the officers 
at the front. 

There have been more cases of nervous break- 
downs among the people during the last year than 
at any time in Germany's history. There have 
been so many suicides that the newspapers are 
forbidden to publish them. There have been so 
many losses on the battlefields that every family 
has been affected not once, but two, three and 
four times. Dance halls have been closed. Cafes 
and hotels must stop serving meals by 11 o'clock. 
Theatres are presenting the most sullen plays. 
Rumours spread like prairie fires. One day Hin- 
denburg is dead. Two days later he is alive again. 

But the Kaiser has studied this war psychology. 
He and his ministers know that one thing keeps 
the German people fighting — their hope of ulti- 
mate victory; their belief that they have won 
already. The Kaiser knows, too, that if the pub- 
lic mind is stimulated from day to day by new 
victories, by reports of many prisoners, of new 
territory gained, of enemy ships torpedoed, or by 
promises of reforms after the war, the public 
will continue fighting. 

So the Kaiser gambles from day to day with 
his people's nerves. For two years he has done 
this, and for two years he has been supported by 
a 12,000,000-man-power army and a larger army 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 163 

of workers and women at home. The Kaiser be- 
lieves he can gamble for a long time yet with his 
people. 

Just as it is impossible for a physician to say 
how long his patient can be stimulated without 
breaking down, so is it impossible for an observer 
in Germany to say how long it will be before the 
break-up comes in Germany. 

Many times during the war Germany has been 
on the verge of a collapse. President Wilson's 
ultimatum after the sinking of the Sussex in the 
English Channel brought about one crisis. Von 
Falkenhayn's defeat at Verdun caused another. 
The Somme battle brought on a third. General 
Brusiloff's offensive against the Austrians upset 
conditions throughout the Central Powers. Ru- 
mania's declaration of war made another crisis. 
But Germany passed all of these successfully. 

The ability of the German Government to con- 
vince the people that Wilson was unneutral and 
wanted war caused them to accept Germany's note 
in the Sussex case. The defeat at Verdun was 
explained as a tactical success. The Somme bat- 
tles, with their terrible losses, failed to bring a 
break-up because the Allies stopped attacking at 
the critical moment. 

Von Hindenburg as chief of the General Staff 
of Central Europe remedied the mistakes of the 
Austrians during Brusiloff's attacks by reorgan- 
ising the Dual Monarchy's army. The crisis 
which Rumania's entrance on the Allies' side 



164 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

brought in Germany and Hungary was forgotten 
after von Mackensen took Bucharest. 

In each of these instances it will be noticed that 
the crisis was successfully passed by *^ stimula- 
tion.'' The German mind was made to believe 
what the Kaiser willed. 

But what about the future 1 Is there a bottom- 
less well of stimulation in Germany! 

Before these questions can be answered others 
must be asked: Why don't the German people 
think for themselves*? Will they ever think for 
themselves? 

An incident which occurred in Berlin last De- 
cember illustrates the fact that the people are 
beginning to think. After the Allies replied to 
President Wilson's peace note the Kaiser issued 
an appeal to the German people. One morning 
it was printed on the first pages of all newspapers 
in boldface type. When I arrived at my office the 
janitor handed me the morning papers and, point- 
ing to the Kaiser's letter, said: 

^^I see the Kaiser has written US another letter. 
You know he never wrote to US in peace time." 

There are evidences, too, that others are be- 
ginning to think. The Eussian revolution is go- 
ing to cause many Socialists to discuss the future 
of Germany. They have discussed it before, but 
always behind closed doors and with lowered 
voices. I attended one night a secret meeting of 
three Socialist leaders of the Eeichstag, an editor 
of a Berlin paper and several business men. 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 165 

What they said of the Kaiser that night would, if 
it were published, send every man to the military 
firing squad. But these men didn't dare speak 
that way in public at that time. Perhaps the 
Eussian revolt will give them more courage. 

But the Government is not asleep to these 
changes. The Kaiser believes he can continue 
juggling public opinion, but he knows that from 
now on it will be more difficult. But he will not 
stop. He will always hold forth the vision of vic- 
tory as the reward for German faithfulness. To- 
day, for instance, in the United States we hear 
very little about the German submarine warfare. 
It is the policy of the Allies not to publish all 
losses immediately; first because the enemy must 
not be given any important information if pos- 
sible, and, secondly, because losses have a bad 
effect upon any people. 

But the German people do not read what we do. 
Their newspapers are printing daily the ship 
losses of the Entente. Submarines are returning 
and making i*eports. These reports are published 
and in a way to give the people the impression 
that the submarine war is a success. We get the 
opposite impression here, but we are not in a 
position better to judge than the Germans, be- 
cause we don't hear everything. 

The important question, however, is : What are 
the German people being told about submarine 
warfare 1 

Judging from past events, the Kaiser and his 



166 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Na,vy are undoubtedly magnifying every sinking 
for the purpose of stimulating the people into be- 
lieving that the victory they seek is getting nearer. 
The Government knows that the public favours 
ruthless torpedoing of all ships bound for the 
enemy, so the Government is safe in concluding 
that the public can be stimulated for some months 
more by reports of submarine victory. 

Military operations in the West are probably 
not arousing the discussion in Berlin that the 
plans against Russia are. The Government will 
see to it that the press points regularly to the 
possibilities of a separate peace with Russia, or 
to the possibility of a Hindenburg advance against 
England and France. 

The people have childlike faith in von Hinden- 
burg. If Paul von Hindenburg says a retreat is a 
victory the people will take his judgment. But all 
German leaders know that the time is coming when 
they will have to show the German people a vic- 
tory or take the consequences themselves. 

Hence it would not be surprising if, after pres- 
ent military operations are concluded, either by 
an offensive against Russia or by an attack on the 
Western line, the Chancellor again made peace 
proposals. The Socialists will force the Chancel- 
lor to do it sooner or later. They are the real 
power behind the throne, although they have not 
enough spunk to try to oust the Kaiser and tell 
the people to do their own thinking. 

A big Allied military victory would, of course, 



THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO 167 

change everything. Defeat of the German army 
would mean defeat of von Hindenburg, the Ger- 
man god. It would put an end to the Kaiser's 
juggling with his people's nerves. But few peo- 
ple in Germany expect an Entente victory this 
year, and they believe that if the Allies don't win 
this year they never will win. 

Germany is stronger militarily now than she 
has been and Germany will be able for many 
months to keep many Entente armies occupied. 
Before the year is passed the Entente may need 
American troops as badly as France needed Eng- 
lish assistance last year. General von Falken- 
hayn, former chief of the German General Staff, 
told me about the same thing last December, in 
Rumania. 

*^In war," he remarked, ^^ nothing is certain ex- 
cept that everything is uncertain, but one thing 
I know is certain : We will win the war. ' ' 

America's entrance ^ however, will have the de- 
cisive effect. The Allies, especially the French, 
appreciate this. As a high French official re- 
marked one day when Ambassador Gerard's party 
was in Paris: 

^' There have been two great moments in the 
war for France. The first was when England de- 
clared war to support us. The second was the 
breaking of diplomatic relations between the 
United States and Germany." 

The Germans don't believe this. As General 
von Stein, Prussian Minister of War, said, Ger- 



168 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

many doesn't fear the United States. He said 
that, of course, for its effect upon the German 
people. The people must be made to believe this 
or they will not be able to hate America in true 
German fashion. 

America's participation, however, will upset 
Hindenburg's war plans. American intervention 
can put a stop to the Kaiser's juggling with his 
people's minds by helping the Allies defeat Ger- 
many. Only a big military defeat will shake the 
confidence of the Germans in the Kaiser, Hinden- 
burg and their organised might. The people are 
beginning to think now, but they will do a great 
deal more thinking if they are beaten. 

So the answer to the question: ^^How long can 
Germany hold out ? " is really answered by saying 
that Germany can keep on until she is decisively 
defeated militarily. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12tH 



DISTURBED by internal political dissension 
and tormented by lack of food the German 
ship of state was sailing troubled waters 
by November, 1916. Chancellor von Bethmann- 
Hollweg's speech to the Reichstag on September 
28th satisfied no one. After he had spoken the 
only thing people could recall were his words : 

'^The mighty tasks which await ns in all the 
domains of public, social, economic, and political 
life need all the strength of the people for their 
fulfilment. It is a necessity of state which ^vill 
triumph over all obstacles to utilise to the utmost 
those forces which have been forged in the fire and 
which clamour for work and creation. A free path 
for all ivlio are capable — that must he our ivatch- 
word. If we carry it out freely, mthout prejudice, 
then our empire goes to a healthy future.'' 

The press interpreted this as meaning that the 
Chancellor might some day change his mind about 
the advisability of a ruthless submarine warfare. 
Early in November when it appeared that the Al- 

169 



170 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

lies would not succeed in breaking through at the 
Somme peace forces were again mobilised. But 
when various neutral countries sounded Germany 
as to possible terms they discovered that Germany 
was the self-appointed 'S^ictor'' and would con- 
sider only a peace which recognised Germany as 
the dominant power in Europe. The confidence 
of the army in the victory was so great that the 
following article was printed in all the German 
newspapers : 

^' FAITH IN VICTOEY'^ 

* ^ Great Headquarters sends us the following : 
^^ Since the beginning of the war, when enemies 
arose on all sides and millions of troops proceeded 
from all directions — since then more than two long 
years have brought no more eventful days than 
those of the present. The unity of the front — our 
enemies have prepared it for a long time past with 
great care and proclaimed it in loud tones. Again 
and again our unexpected attacks have disturbed 
this boldly thought out plan in its development, 
destroying its force, but now at last something has 
been accomplished that realises at least part of 
the intentions of our enemies and all their strength 
is being concentrated for a simultaneous attack. 
The victory which was withheld from them on all 
the theatres of war is to be accomplished by an 
elaborate attack against the defensive walls of our 
best blood. The masses of iron supplied them by 
half the world are poured on our gallant troops 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 171 

day and night with the object of weakening their 
will and then the mass attacks of white, yellow, 
brown and black come on. 

''The world never experienced anything so mon- 
strous and never have armies kept up a resistance 
such as ours. 

' ' Our enemies combine the hunger and lie cam- 
paign with that of arms, both aimed at the head 
and heart of our home. The hunger campaign 
they will lose as the troublesome work of just 
an equal administration and distribution of the 
necessities of life is almost complete. And a 
promising harvest has ripened on our broad fields. 
From the first day of the war, we alone of all the 
belligerent nations published the army reports of 
all of our enemies in full, as our confidence in the 
constancy of those at home is unlimited. But our 
enemies have taken advantage of this confidence 
and several times a day they send out war re- 
ports to the world; the English since the begin- 
ning of their offensive send a despatch every two 
hours. Each of these publications is two or three 
times as long as our daily report and all written 
in a style which has nothing in common with mil- 
itary brevity and simplicity. Tliis is no longer 
the language of the soldier. They are mere fan- 
tastic hymns of victory and their parade of names 
and of conquered villages and woods and stormed 
positions, and the number of captured guns, and 
tens of thousands of prisoners is a mockery of 
the truth. 



17S GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

^'Wliy is all this done? Is it only intended to 
restore the wearying confidence of their own 
armies and people and the tottering faith of their 
allies 1 Is it only intended to blind the eagerly ob- 
serving eye of the nentralsf No, this flood of tele- 
grams is intended to pass through the channels 
which we ourselves have opened to our enemy, and 
to dash against the heart of the German people, 
undermining and washing away our steadfastness. 

*^But this despicable game will not succeed. In 
the same manner as our gallant troops in the field 
defy superior numbers, so the German people at 
home will defy the enemies' legions of lies, and 
remember that the German army reports cannot 
tell them and the world at large everything at 
present, but they never publish a word the truth 
of which could not be minutely sifted. With proud 
confidence in the concise, but absolutely reliable 
publications of our own army administration, 
Germany will accept these legions of enemy re- 
ports at their own value, as wicked concoctions, 
attempting to rob them of calm and confidence 
which the soldier must feel supporting him, if he 
joyfully risks his all for the protection of those 
at home. Thus our enemies' legions of lies will 
break against the wall of our iron faith. Our 
warriors defy the iron and fire — those at home 
will also defy the floods of printed paper and re- 
main unrufiled. The nation and army alike are 
one in their will and faith in victory." 



dRiindyen. 4. 'Mai 1915 



Pceis 30:pf3, 



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THE POPE TO PRESIDENT WILSON — "hOW CAN MY ANGEL FLY, 
MR. PRESIDENT, WHEN YOU ALWAYS PUT SHELLS IN HER 
POCKETS?" 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 173 

This is a tjrpical example of the kind of inspired 
stories which are printed in the German newspa- 
pers from time to time to keep up the confidence 
of the people. This was particularly needed last 
fall because the people were depressed and melan- 
choly over the losses at the Somme, and because 
there was so much criticism and dissatisfaction 
over the Chancellor's attitude towards the sub- 
marine warfare and peace. People, too, were suf- 
fering agonies in their homes because of the in- 
ferior quality of the food, — the lack of necessary 
fats and sugar which normal people need for regu- 
lar nourishment. The Socialists, who are in closer 
touch with the people than any others, increased 
their demands for peace while the National Lib- 
erals and the Conservatives, who wanted a war of 
exhaustion against Great Britain, increased their 
agitation for the submarine warfare. The Chan- 
cellor was between two tormentors. Either he had 
to attempt to make peace to satisfy the Socialists 
and the people, or he had to give in to the de- 
mands for submarine warfare as outlined by the 
National Liberals. One day Scheidemann went 
to the Chancellor's palace, after he had visited all 
the big centres of Germany, and said to von Beth- 
mann-Hollweg : 

^ ^ Unless you try to make peace at once the peo- 
ple will revolt and I shall lead the revolution ! ' ' 

At the same time the industrial leaders of the 
Rhine Valley and the Army and Navy were serv- 



174 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

ing notice on the Government tliat there could not 
possibly be a German victory unless every weapon 
in Germany ^s possession, which included of course 
the submarine, was used against Germany's so- 
called chief foe — England. 

Confronted by graver troubles within Germany 
than those from the outside, the Chancellor went 
to Great Headquarters to report to the Kaiser 
and to discuss with von Hindenburg and Luden- 
dorf what should be done to unite the German 
nation. 

While the Army had been successful in Rouma- 
nia and had given the people renewed confidence, 
this was not great enough to carry the people 
through another hard winter. 

While Germany had made promises to the 
United States in May that no ships would be sunk 
without warning, the submarines were not adher- 
ing very closely to the written instructions. The 
whole world was aroused over Germany's re- 
peated disregard of the rules and practice of sea 
warfare. President Wilson through Ajnbassador 
Gerard had sent nine inquiries to the Foreign 
Office asking for a report from Germany on the 
sinking of various ships not only contrary to in- 
ternational law but contrary to Germany's 
pledges. In an attempt to ward off many of the 
neutral indictments of Germany's sea warfare the 
official North German Gazette published an expla- 
nation containing the following : 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 175 

*^The activity of our submarines in the Atlan- 
tic Ocean and White Sea has led the press of the 
entire world to producing articles as to the waging 
of cruiser warfare by means of submarines. In 
both cases it can be accurately stated that there 
is no question of submarine warfare here, but of 
cruiser warfare waged with the support of sub- 
marines and the details reported hitherto as to the 
activities of our submarines do not admit of any 
other explanation, in spite of the endeavours of 
the British press to twist and misrepresent facts. 
It is also strictly correct to state that the cruiser 
warfare which is being waged by means of subma- 
rines is in strict compliance with the German prize 
regulations which correspond to the International 
Kules laid down and agreed to in the Declara- 
tion of London which are not being any more 
complied with by England. The accusations and 
charges brought forward by the British press and 
propaganda campaign in connection with ships 
sunk, can be shown as futile, as our position is 
both militarily and from the standpoint of inter- 
national law irreproachable. We do not sink neu- 
tral ships per se, as was recently declared in a 
proclamation, but the ammunition transports and 
other contraband wares conducive to the prolonga- 
tion of the war, and the rights of defensive meas- 
ures as regards this cannot be denied Germany^ 
any more than any other country. 

** Based on this idea, it is clearly obvious that 
the real loss of the destruction of tonnage must be 



176 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

attributed to the supplies sent to England and 
not to the attitude displayed by Germany which 
has but recourse to purely defensive measures. 
If the attitude displayed by England towards neu- 
trals during the course of this war be considered, 
the manner in which it forced compulsory sup- 
plies of contraband goods, etc., it can be further 
recognised that England is responsible for the 
losses in ships, as it is owing to England's attitude 
that the cause is to be found. . . . 

*^ Although England has hit and crippled legiti- 
mate trade to such an extent, Germany does not 
wish to act in the same manner, but simply to 
stop the shipments of contraband goods calculated 
to lengthen the war. England evidently is being 
hard hit by our defensive submarine measures and 
is therefore doing all in her power to incite pub- 
lic opinion against the German methods of war- 
fare and confuse opinion in neutral countries. . . . 

' ^ Therefore it must again be recalled that it is : 

' ^ England, which has crippled neutral trade ! 

*^ England, which has rendered the freedom of 
the seas impossible! 

^'England, which has extended the risk of con- 
traband wares in excess of international agree- 
ments, and now raises a cry when the same weap- 
ons are used against herself. 

'^England, which has compelled the neutrals to 
supply these shipments of contraband goods cal- 
culated to lengthen the war ! 

'*As the neutrals quietly acquiesced when there 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 177 

was a question of abandoning trade with the Cen- 
tral Powers they have remedies in hand for the 
losses of ships which affect them so deeply. They 
need only consider the fact that the German sub- 
marines on the high seas are able to prevent war 
services to the enemy in the shipments of con- 
traband goods, in a manner that is both militarily 
and from the standpoint of international law, irre- 
proachable. If they agree to desist from the ship- 
ment of contraband goods and cease yielding to 
British pressure then they will not have to com- 
plain of losses in ships and can retain the same 
for peaceful aims. ' ' 

This was aimed especially at America. Naval 
critics did not permit the opportunity to pass to 
call to the attention of the Government that Ger- 
many's promises in the Sussex case were only con- 
ditional and that, therefore, they could be broken 
at any time. The Chancellor was in a most difficult 
situation ; so w^as von Hindenburg and the Kaiser. 
On December 10th it was announced that the 
Eeichstag would be called to a special session on 
the twelfth and that the Chancellor would discuss 
the international situation as it was affected by 
the Roumanian campaign. 

The meeting of December 12th was the best at- 
tended and most impressive one of the Eeichstag 
since August 4th, 1914. Before the Chancellor left 
his palace he called the representatives of the 
neutral nations and handed them Germany's peace 



178 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

proposal. The same day Germany sent to every 
part of the globe throngh her wireless stations, 
Germany's note to the Allies and the Chancellor's 
address. 

The world was astonished and surprised at the 
German move but no one knew whether it was 
to be taken seriously. Great Britain instructed 
her embassies and legations in neutral countries 
to attempt to find out whether the Chancellor 
really desired to make peace or whether his state- 
ments were to be interpreted as something to quiet 
internal troubles. 

During the days of discussion which followed I 
was in close touch with the Foreign Office, the 
American Embassy and the General Staff. The 
first intimation I received that Germany did not 
expect the peace plan to succeed was on December 
14th at a meeting of the neutral correspondents 
with Lieut. Col. von Haeften. When von Hinden- 
burg became Chief of the General Staff he reor- 
ganised the press department in Berlin and sent 
von Haeften from his personal staff to Berlin to 
direct the press propaganda. As a student of pub- 
lic opinion abroad von Haeften was a genius and 
was extremely frank and honest with the corre- 
spondents. 

^^We have proposed peace to our enemies," he 
said to the correspondents, ^^ because we feel that 
we have been victorious and because we believe 
that no matter how long the war continues the 
Allies will not be able to defeat us. It will be in- 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 179 

teresting to see what effect our proposal has upon 
Russia. Reports which we have received, coming 
from unquestionable sources, state that internal 
conditions in Russia are desperate; that food is 
scarce; that the transportation system is so de- 
moralised and that it will be at least eight months 
before Russia can do anything in a military way. 
Russia wants peace and needs peace and we shall 
see now whether she has enough influence upon 
England to compel England to make peace. We 
are prepared to go on with the war if the Allies 
refuse our proposals. If we do we shall not give 
an inch without making the Allies pay such a 
dear cost that they will not be able to continue. ' ^ 

The Foreign Office was not optimistic over the 
possibilities of success r officials realised that the 
new Lloyd-George Cabinet meant a stronger war 
policy by Great Britain, but they thought the peace 
proposals might shake the British confidence in 
the new government and cause the overthrow of 
Lloyd-George and the return of Asquith and Vis- 
count Edward Grey. 

From all appearances in Berlin it was evident 
to every neutral diplomat with whom I talked that 
while Germany was proclaiming to the whole 
world her desire for peace she had in mind only 
the most drastic peace terms as far as Belgium, 
certain sections of northern France, Poland and 
the Balkans were concerned. Neutrals observed 
that Germany was so exalted over the Roumanian 
victory and the possibilities of that campaign solv- 



180 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

ing the food problem that she was not only ready 
to defy the Allies but the neutral world unless the 
world was ready to bow to a German victory. 
There were some people in Germany who realised 
that the sooner she made peace the better peace 
terms she could get but the Government was not 
of this opinion. The Allies, as was expected, defi- 
antly refused the Prussian olive branch which had 
been extended like everything else from Germany 
with a string tied to it. For the purposes of the 
Kaiser and his Government the Allies ' reply was 
exactly what they wanted. 

The German Government was in this position: 
If the Allies accepted Germany's proposal it 
would enable the Government to unite all factions 
in Germany by making a peace which would sat- 
isfy the political parties as well as the people. If 
the Allies refused, the German Government cal- 
culated that the refusal would be so bitter that it 
would unite the German people political organisa- 
tions and enable the Government to continue the 
war in any way it saw fit. 

Nothing which had happened during the year so 
solidified the German nation as the Allies ' replies 
to Berlin and to President Wilson. It proved to 
the German people that their Government was 
waging a defensive war because the Allies de- 
manded annexation, compensation and guarantees, 
all of which meant a change in the map of Europe 
from what it was at the beginning of the war. The 
interests which had been demanding a submarine 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 181 

warfare saw their opportunity had come. They 
knew that as a result of the Allies' notes the public 
would sanction an unrestricted sea warfare 
against the whole world if that was necessary. 

From December 12th until after Christmas, dis- 
cussions of peace filled the German newspapers. 
By January 1st all possibilities of peace had dis- 
appeared. The Government and the public real- 
ised that the war would go on and that prepara- 
tions would have to be made at once for the biggest 
campaign in the history of the world in 1917. 

Throughout the peace discussions one thing was 
evident to all Americans. Opposition to Aoneri- 
can intervention in any peace discussion was so 
great that the United States would not be able to 
take any leading part without being faced by the 
animosity of a great section of Germany. When 
it was stated in the press that Joseph C. Grew, 
the American Charge d 'Affaires, had received the 
German note and transmitted it to his Govern- 
ment, public indignation was so great that the 
Government had to inform all of the German news- 
papers to explain that Germany had not asked the 
United States to make peace ; that Germany had in 
fact not asked any neutrals to fnake peace but had 
only handed these neutrals the German note in 
order to get it officially before the Allies. At this 
time the defiant attitude of the whole nation was 
well expressed in an editorial in the Morgen Post 
saying: ^'If Germany's hand is refused her fist 
will soon be felt with increased force." 



182 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

n 

The Conferences at Pless 

As early as September, 1916, Ambassador 
Gerard reported to the State Department that the 
forces demanding an unrestricted submarine cam- 
paign were gaining such strength in Germany that 
the Government wonld not be able to maintain its 
position very long. Gerard saw that not only the 
political difficulties but the scarcity of food and 
the anti- American campaign of hate were making 
such headway that unless peace were made there 
would be nothing to prevent a rupture with the 
United States. The latter part of December when 
Gerard returned from the United States after 
conferences with President Wilson he began to 
study the submarine situation. 

He saw that only the most desperate resistance 
on the part of the Chancellor would be able to 
stem the tide of hate and keep America out of the 
war. On January 7th the American Chamber of 
Commerce and Trade in Berlin gave a dinner to 
Ambassador Gerard and invited the Chancellor, 
Dr. Helfferich, Dr. Solf, Minister of Foreign Af- 
fairs Zimmermann, prominent German bankers 
and business men, leading editors and all others 
who a few months before during the Sussex crisis 
had combined in maintaining friendly relations. 
At this banquet Gerard made the statement, ^ ' As 
long as such men as Generals von Hindenburg and 



On the Kaiser's birthday services were held in all 
Protestant churches in Germany. The clergy was mo- 
bilised to encourage the people. On January 29th I sent 
the following despatch after attending the impressive 
services in the Berlin Cathedral : 

** Where one year ago Dr. Dryander, the quiet white- 
haired man who is court preacher, pleaded for an hour 
for peace in the services marking the Kaiser's birthday, 
this year his sermon was a fiery defence of Germany's 
cause and a militant plea for Germany to steel herself 
for the decisive battle every one believes is coming. 

"In this changed spirit he reflected the sentiment of 
the German people. His sermon of Saturday has evoked 
the deepest approval everywhere. 

" 'We know,' he said, 'that before us is the decisive 
battle which can be fought through only with the great- 
est sacrifices. But in all cases of the past God has helped 
us, and God will fight for us to-day, through our leaders 
and our soldiers. We neither 'walled nor wanted this 
war — neither the Kaiser nor the people. We hoped for 
peace as the Kaiser extended his peace proposal, but 
with unheard of frivolity and insults our enemies slapped 
the back of the Kaiser's extended hand of peace. 

" 'To such enemies there is only one voice — that of 
the cannon. We continue the war with a clear con- 
science and with trust in God that he will bring us vic- 
tory. God cannot — he will not — permit the German peo- 
ple to go down.' " 

^ * GOD WILL NOT PERMIT THE GERMAN PEOPLE TO GO DOWN ' * 



184 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Ludendorf, as long as Admirals von Capelle, von 
HoltzendorfP and von Mueller headed the Navy 
Department, and the Chancellor von Bethmann- 
Hollweg directed the political affairs there would 
be no trouble with the United States.'' Gerard 
was severely criticised abroad not only for this 
statement but for a further remark ^ ^ That the re- 
lations between Germany and the United States 
had never been better than they were to-day." 
Gerard saw before he had been in Berlin a week 
that Germany was desperate, that conditions were 
getting worse and that with no possibilities of 
peace Germany would probably renew the von 
Tirpitz submarine warfare. He chose desperate 
means himself at this banquet to appeal to the 
democratic forces in Germany to side with the 
Chancellor when the question of a ruthless sub- 
marine warfare again came up. 

The German Government, however, had 
planned its moves months in advance. Just as 
every great offensive on the battlefields is 
planned, even to the finest details, six months be- 
fore operations begin, so are the big moves on the 
political chessboard of Europe. 

There are very few men in public life in Ger- 
many who have the courage of their convictions 
to resign if their policies are overruled. Yon 
Jagow, who was Secretary of State from the be- 
ginning of the war until December, 1916, was one 
of these ^^few." Because von Jagow had to sign 
all of the foolish, explanatory and excusing notes 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 185 

which the German Government sent to the United 
States he was considered abroad as being weak 
and incapable. But when he realised early in No- 
vember that the Government was determined to 
renew the submarine warfare unless peace was 
made von Jagow was the only man in German 
public life who would not remain an official of the 
Government and bring about a break with Amer- 
ica. Zimmermann, however, was a different type 
of official. Zimmermann, like the Chancellor, is 
ambitious, bigoted, cold-blooded and an intriguer 
of the first calibre. As long as he was Under 
Secretary of State he fought von Jagow and tried 
repeatedly to oust him. So it was not surprising 
to Americans when they heard that Zimmermann 
had succeeded von Jagow. 

The Gerard banquet, however, came too late. 
The die was cast. But the world was not to learn 
of it for some weeks. 

On the 27th of January, the Kaiser's birthday, 
the Chancellor, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, 
First Quartermaster General Ludendorf, Admi- 
rals von Capelle, von Holtzendorff and von Muel- 
ler and Secretary of State Zimmermann were in- 
vited to Great Headquarters to attend the Kai- 
ser's birthday dinner. 

Ever since von Hindenburg has been Chief of 
the General Staff the Grand Chief Headquarters 
of the German Army have been located at Pless, 
on the estate of the Prince of Pless in Silicia. 
Previously, the Kaiser had had his headquarters 



186 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

here, because it was said and popularly believed 
that His Majesty was in love with the beautiful 
Princess of Pless, an Englishwoman by birth. 
"When von Hindenburg took his headquarters to 
the big castle there, the Princess was exiled and 
sent to Parkenkirchen, one of the winter resorts 
of Bavaria. 

On previous birthdays of the Emperor and 
when questions of great moment were debated the 
civilian ministers of the Kaiser were always in- 
vited. But on the Kaiser's birthday in 1917 only 
the military leaders were asked. Dr. Helfferich, 
Minister of Colonies Solf, German bankers and 
business men as well as German shippers were 
not consulted. Germany was becoming so des- 
perate that she was willing to defy not only her 
enemies and neutral countries but her own finan- 
ciers and business men. Previously, when the 
submarine issue was debated the Kaiser wanted 
to know what effect such a warfare would have 
upon German economic and industrial life. But 
this time he did not care. He wanted to know the 
naval and military arguments. 

In August, 1914, when the Chancellor and a 
very small group of people were appealing to His 
Majesty not to go to war, the Kaiser sided with 
General von Moltke and Admiral von Tirpitz. 
During the various submarine crises with the 
United States it appeared that the Kaiser was 
changing — that he was willing and ready to side 
with the forces of democracy in his own country. 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 187 

President Wilson and Ambassador Gerard 
thought that after the downfall of von Tirpitz and 
von Falkenhayn the Kaiser would join hands with 
the reform forces. But in 1917 when the final de- 
cision came the Kaiser cast his lot with his gen- 
erals against the United States and against de- 
mocracy in Germany. The Chancellor, who had 
impressed neutral observers as being a real leader 
of democracy in Germany, sided with the Kaiser. 
Thus by one stroke the democratic movement 
which was under way in Germany received a rude 
slap. The man the people had looked upon as a 
friend became an enemy. 

The Break in Diplomatic Relations 

On January 30th the German Government an- 
nounced its blockade of all Allied coasts and stated 
that all shipping within these waters, except on 
special lanes, would be sunk without notice. Ger- 
many challenged the whole world to stay off of 
the ocean. President Wilson broke diplomatic re- 
lations immediately and ordered Ambassador Ge- 
rard to return home. Gerard called at the For- 
eign Office for his passports and said that he de- 
sired to leave at once. Zimmermann informed him 
that as soon as the arrangements for a train could 
be made he could leave. Zimmermann asked the 
Ambassador to submit a list of persons he desired 



188 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

to accompany him. The Ambassador's list was 
submitted the next day. The Foreign Office sent 
it to the General Staff, but nearly a week passed 
before Gerard was told he conld depart and then 
he was instructed that the American consuls could 
not accompany him, but would have to take a spe- 
cial train leaving Munich a week or two later. 
American correspondents, who expressed a desire 
to accompany the Ambassador, were refused per- 
mission. In the meantime reports arrived that 
the United States had confiscated the German 
ships and Count Montgelas, Chief of the Ameri- 
can division of the Foreign Office, informed Ge- 
rard the American correspondents would be held 
as hostages if America did this. Gerard replied 
that he would not leave until the correspondents 
and all other Americans were permitted to leave 
over any route they selected. Practically all of 
the correspondents had handed in their passports 
to the Foreign Office, but not until four hours be- 
fore the special train departed for Switzerland 
were the passports returned. When Gerard asked 
the Foreign Office whether his passports were 
good to the United States the Foreign Office was 
silent and neither would the General Staif guar- 
antee the correspondents a safe conduct through 
the German submarine zone. So the only thing 
the Anabassador could do was to select a route 
via Switzerland, France and Spain, to Cuba and 
the United States. 



PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH 189 

The train wliicli left Berlin on the night of 
February 10th carried the happiest group of 
Americans which had been in Europe since the 
war began. Practically no one slept. When the 
Swiss border was reached the Stars and Stripes 
were hung from the car windows and Americans 
breathed again in a free land. They felt like 
prisoners escaping from a penitentiary. Most of 
them had been under surveillance or suspicion for 
months. Nearly every one had had personal ex- 
periences which proved to them that the German 
people were like the Government — there was no 
respect for public sentiment or moral obligation. 
Some of the women had upon previous occasions, 
when they crossed the German frontier, submit- 
ted to the most inhuman indignities, but they re- 
mained in Germany because their husbands were 
connected in some way with United States gov- 
ernment or semi-public service work. They were 
delighted to escape the land where everything is 
^^verboten'^ except hatred and militarism. The 
second day after Gerard's arrival in Berne, Amer- 
ican Minister Stoval gave a reception to the Am- 
bassador and invited the Allied diplomats. From 
tliat evening on until he sailed from Coruna, 
Spain, the Ambassador felt that he was among 
friends. When the Americans accompanying the 
Ambassador asked the French authorities in 
Switzerland for permission to enter France the 
French replied: 



190 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

''Of course you can go througli France. You 
are exiles and France welcomes you.'' 

After tlie Americans arrived in Paris they said 
they were not considered exiles but guests. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE BERNHAEDI OF THE SEAS 

AFTER tlie break in diplomatic relations the 
slogan of German Militarism became: 
''Win or lose, we must end the war.^' 
To many observers it seemed to be insanity cou- 
pled with desperation which caused the Kaiser to 
defy the United States. There was no doubt that 
Germany was desperate,^ economically, morally 
and militarily. While war had led German 
armies far into enemy territory, it had destroyed 
German influence throughout the world; it had 
lost Germany's colonies and Pacific possessions 
and it had turned the opinion of the world against 
Germany. But during the time Germany was try- 
ing to impress the United States with its sincerity 
after the Sussex incident the German Navy was 
building submarines. It was not building these 
ships to be used in cruiser warfare. It was build- 
ing them for the future, when submarine war 
would be launched on a big scale, perhaps on a 
bigger scale than it had ever before been con- 
ducted. 

After the new blockade of the Allied Coast was 
proclaimed, effective Feb. 1, 1917, some explana- 

191 



192 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

tion had to be made to convince the public that 
the submarine war would be successful and would 
bring the victory which the people had been prom- 
ised. The public was never informed directly 
what the arguments were which convinced the 
Kaiser that he could win the war by using sub- 
marines. But on the 9th of February there ap- 
peared a small book written by Rear Admiral 
Hollweg entitled: '^Unser Recht auf den Uboot- 
krieg.'' (Our Right in Submarine Warfare.) The 
manuscript of this book was concluded on the 
15th of January, which shows that the data which 
it contained and the information and arguments 
presented were those which the Admiralty placed 
before the Kaiser on his birthday. The points 
which Rear Admiral Hollweg makes in his book 
are: 

1. America's unfriendly neutrality justifies a 
disregard of the United States ; 

2. The loss of merchant ships is bringing about 
a crisis in the military and economic conditions of 
the Allies; 

3. England, as the heart of the Entente, must be 
harmed before peace can be made; 

4. Submarines can and must end the war. 
This book is for the German people a naval 

text book as General von Bernhardi's book, *^ Ger- 
many and the Next War,'' was a military text 
book. Bernhardi's task was to school Germany 
into the belief in the unbeatableness of the Ger- 
man army. Hollweg 's book is to teach the Ger- 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 193 

man people what their submarines will accom- 
plish and to steal the people for the plans her 
military leaders will propose and carry through 
on this basis. 

The keynote of Hollweg's arguments is taken 
from the words of the German song: **Der Gott 
der Eisen w^achsen Liesz," w^ritten by Ernst Mo- 
ritz Arndt. Hollweg quotes this sentence on page 
23: 

* ^ Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken, als ein Schrecken 
ohne Ende." 

(*' Rather an end with Terror than Terror with- 
out End.'^) 

In the chapter on ^'The Submarine War and 
Victory" the writer presents the following table: 
Status of merchant ships in 1914 : 



England (Exclusive of colo- 
nies) 19,256,766 

France 2,319,438 

Eussia 1,053,818 

Italy 1,668,296 

Belgium 352,124 

Japan 1,708,386 



(Figures for Dec. 1916 estimated) 
The World Tonnage at beginning of war was. . . 49,089,553 
Added 1914-16 by new construction 2,000,000 

51,089,553 



Sunk or 




Captured 


Percentage 


2,977,820 


15.5 


376,360 


16.2 


146,168 


13.8 


314,290 


18.8 


32,971 


9.3 


37,391 


0.22 



194 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Of this not useable are; 

Tonnage Germany . . . 5,459,296 

Austria . . . 1,055,719 

Turkey . . . 133,158 

In Germany and Tur- 
key held enemy 

shipping 200,000 

Ships in U. S. A 2,352,764 

Locked in Baltic and 

Black Sea 700,000 

Destroyed enemy ton- 
nage 3,885,000 

Total 13,785,937 

Destroyed neutral ton- 
nage (estimated) . . 900,000 

14,685,937 
Eequisitioned by en- 
emy countries for 
war purposes, trans- 
ports, etc. 

England 9,000,000 

France 1,400,000 

Italy 1,100,000 

Eussia 400,000 

Belgium 250,000 

12,150,000 

26,835,937 

Eemaining for world freight transmission still 

useable at the beginning of 1917 24,253,615 tons 

To the Entente argument that Germany has not 
considered the speedy construction of merchant 
ships during war time the author replies by citing 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 195 

Lloyd's List of December 29, 1916, which gave 
the following tonnage as having been completed 
in British wharves: 

1913 1,977,000 tons 

1914 1,722,000 " 

1915 649,000 '* 

1916 582,000 ** 

*' These figures demonstrate that England, 
which is the leader of the world as a freight car- 
rier is being harmed the most/' Admiral Holl- 
weg cites these figures to show that ship construc- 
tion has decreased in England and that England 
cannot make good ship losses by new construc- 
tion. 

On page 17 Rear Admiral Hollweg says : . 

** We are conducting to-day a war against enemy 
merchant vessels different from the methods of 
former wars only in part by ordinary warships. 
The chief method is by submarines based upon 
the fundamentals of international law as dictated 
by German prize court regulations. The German 
prize regulations were at the beginning of the 
war based upon the fundamental principles of the 
London Declaration and respected the modern 
endeavours of all civilised states to decrease the 
terrors of war. These regulations of sea laws 
were written to decrease the effects of the un- 
avoidable consequences of sea warfare upon non- 
combatants and neutrals. As far as there have 



196 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

been cliaiiges in the regulations of the London 
Declaration during the war, especially as far as 
changes in the contraband list have been extended, 
we Germans have religiously followed the prin- 
ciple set by the English of, ^ an eye for an eye and 
a tooth for a tooth.' " 

On page 19 he states : 

** Americans would under no circumstances, not 
even to-day, if they were faced by a superior sea 
power in war, refuse to follow this method of 
warfare by the ruthless use of pirate ships. May 
our submarine campaign be an example for them ! 
The clever cruiser journey of U-53 off the Atlan- 
tic Coast gave them clearly to understand what 
this method was. Legally they cannot complain 
of this warfare. The other neutrals cannot com- 
plain either against such sea warfare because they 
have ever since the Middle Ages recognised the 
English method of sea warfare." 

In the chapter entitled ^'The Opponent,'' on 
page 27 the author says: 

** Before there is a discussion of our legal right 
to the submarine warfare a brief review of the 
general policies of our opponents during the war 
will be given. This account shall serve the pur- 
pose of fortifying the living feeling within us of 
our natural right and of our duty to use all weap- 
ons ruthlessly. > 




Kriegs-Chronik der 



Meggendorfer-Biatter ® 




9cr ncut 'SSettcrmantel 



THE XEW WEATHER CAPE 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 197 

^^If we did not know before the publication of 
the Entente Note [The Allies' peace reply to 
Germany] what w^e were np against, now we 
know. The mask fell. Now we have confirmation 
of the intentions to rob and conquer us which 
caused the individual entente nations to league to- 
gether and conduct the war. The neutrals will 
now see the situation more clearly. For us it is 
war, literally to be or not to be a German nation. 
Never did such an appeal [The Entente Note] 
find such a fruitful echo in German hearts. . . . 
• ••••• 

*'I begin with England, our worst enemy." 

On page 31 Admiral Hollweg speaks of the fact 
that at the beginning of -the war many Germans, 
especially those in banking and business circles, 
felt that Germany was so indispensable to Eng- 
land in peace time that England would not con- 
duct a w^ar to *' knock out'' Germany. But Holl- 
weg says the situation has now changed. 

On pages 122 to 126 he justifies the ruthless 
submarine warfare in the following way : 

^^It is known that England and her allies de- 
clared at the beginning of the war that they would 
adhere to the Declaration of London. It is just 
as well known that England and the Allies 
changed this declaration through the Orders in 
Council and other lawless statements of authority 
until the declaration was unrecognisable and 



198 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

worthless — especially the spirit and purpose of 
the agreement were flatly pushed aside until prac- 
tically nothing more remains of the marine laws 
as codified in 1909. The following collection of 
flagrant breaches of international law will show 
who first broke marine laws during the war. 

**Ten gross violations of marine law in war 
time by England. 

^'1. Violation of Article IV of the Maritime 
Declaration of April 16th, 1855. Blockading of 
neutral harbours in violation of international law. 

' * 2. Violation of Article II of the same declara- 
tions by the confiscation of enemy property aboard 
neutral ships. See Order in Council, March 11th, 
1915. 

*^3. Declaration of the North Sea as a war 
zone. British Admiralty Declaration, November 
3, 1914. 

**4. England regarded food as contraband 
since the beginning of the war. The starvation 
war. England confiscated neutral food en route 
to neutral states whenever there was a possibility 
that it would reach the enemy. This violated the 
recognised fundamental principles of the freedom 
of the seas. 

**5. Attempt to prevent all communications be- 
tween Germany and neutral countries through the 
violation of international law and the seizing of 
mail. 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 199 

**6. Imprisonment of German reservists aboard 
neutral ships. 

''1, a. Violation of Article I of The Hague Con- 
vention by the confiscation of the German hospital 
ship Ophelia, b. Murdering of submarine crew 
upon command of British auxiliary cruiser Bara- 
long. c. Violation of Article XXIX, No. 1, of 
London Declaration by preventing American Red 
Cross from sending supplies to the German Red 
Cross. 

**8. a. Destruction of German cruisers Kaiser 
Wilhelm der Grosse in Spanish territorial waters 
by English cruiser Highflyer, b. Destruction of 
German cruiser Dresden in Chinese waters by 
British cruiser Glasgow, c. Attack of British 
warships on German ship Paklas in Norwegian 
waters. 

*^9. England armed her merchant ships for at- 
tack. 

^^10. Use of neutral flags and signs by British 
merchantmen in violation of Articles II and III 
of the Paris Declaration.^^ 

On page 134, after discussing the question of 
whether the English blockade has been effective 
and arguing that England by seizing neutral ships 
with food on the supposition that the food was 
going to Germany, he says : 

**We may conclude from these facts that we 
Germans can now consider ourselves freed from 



goo GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

the nncomfortable conditions of the London Dec- 
laration and may conduct the war as our own in- 
terests prescribe. We have already partially 
done this in as much as we followed the English 
example of extending the lists of war contraband. 
This has been inconvenient for the neutrals af- 
fected and they have protested against it. We 
may, however, consider that they will henceforth 
respect our proposals just as they have in the 
past accepted English interests. England de- 
manded from them that they assist her because 
England was fighting for the future of neutrals 
and of justice. We will take this principle also 
as basis for what we do and even await thereby 
that we will compel England to grant us the kind 
of peace which can lay new foundations for sea 
warfare and that for the future the military acts 
of belligerents against neutrals will not be car- 
ried to the extremes they have been for centuries 
because of England's superior sea power. This 
new era of civilised warfare we bring under the 
term ^freedom of the seas.' '' 

Hollweg's next justification of the unlimited 
submarine warfare is that Secretary of State 
Lansing in a note to Count von Bernstorff at first 
said merchant ships could not be armed and then 
changed his mind. 

On page 160 Hollweg says : * ^ And now in dis- 
cussing the question of the legal position of the 
submarine as a warship I cite here the statements 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 201 

of the German authority on international law, 
Professor Dr. Niemeyer, who said: ^ There can 
be absolutely no question but that the submarine 
is permitted. It is a means of war similar to 
every other one. The frightfulness of the weapon 
was never a ground of condemnation. This is a 
war in which everything is permitted, which is not 
forbidden.^ '' 

On page 175 in the chapter entitled ''The Sub- 
marine War and Victory'' the author says: 

''Every great deed carries with it a certain 
amount of risk. After the refusal of our peace 
proposal we have only the choice of victory with 
the use of all of our strength and power, or, the 
submission to the destructive conditions of our 
opponents. 



>> 



He adds that his statements shall prove to the 
reader that Germany can continue the hard re- 
lentless battle with the greatest possibility and 
confidence of a final victory which will break the 
destructive tendencies of the Entente and guar- 
antee a peace which Germany needs for her fu- 
ture existence. 

On page 193 he declares: "All food prices in 
England have increased on the average 80 7^ in 
price, they are for example considerably higher 
in England than in Germany. A world wide crop 
failure in Canada and Argentine made the im- 
portation of food for England more difficult. 



202 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

^^ England earns in this war as opposed to other 
wars, nothing. Part of her industrial workers are 
under arms, the others are working in making 
war munitions for her own use, not, however, for 
the export of valuable wares." 

Admiral HoUweg has a clever theory that the 
German fleet has played a prominent role in the 
war, although most of the time it has been hug- 
ging the coasts of the Fatherland. He declares 
that the fleet has had a ^ distance effect" upon 
the Allies^ control of the high seas. On page 197 
he says: 

'*"What I mean in extreme by *fernwirkung' 
[distance effect] I will show here by an example. 
The English and French attack on Constantino- 
ple failed. It can at least be doubted whether at 
that time when the connection between Germany 
and Turkey was not established a strong Eng- 
lish naval unit would have brought the attack suc- 
cess. The necessity of not withdrawing the Eng- 
lish battleships from the North Sea prevented 
England from using a more powerful unit at Con- 
stantinople. To this extent the German battle fleet 
was not without influence in the victory for the 
defender of Constantinople. That is * distance 
effect.' " 

On page 187 Hollweg declares: ** England not 
only does not make money to-day by war but she 
is losing. The universal military service which 



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CHART SHOWING TONNAGE OF SHIPS SUNK BY GERMAN 
SUBMARINES FROM REAR ADMIRAL HOLWEG'S BOOK 

SUNK BY SUBMARINE 



BY RAIDERS 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 203 

she was forced to introduce in order to hold the 
other Allies by the tongue draws from her indus- 
try and thereby her commerce, 3,500,000 workmen. 
Coal exportation has decreased. During the 
eleven months from January to November, 1916, 
4,500,000 tons less coal was exported than in 1915. 
In order to produce enough coal for England her- 
self the nation was compelled by the munitions 
obligation law to put miners to work.'* 
On page 223 the author declares : 

*^That is, therefore, the great and important 
role which the submarines in this war are play- 
ing. They are serving also to pave the way in 
the future for the ^freedpm of the seas.' " 

He adds that the submarines will cut the thread 
which holds the English Damocles' sword over 
weak sea powers and that for eternity the ^ * grue- 
some hands" of English despotism will be driven 
from the seas. 

Germany's submarine warfare which was intro- 
duced in February, 1915, began by sinking less 
than 50,000 tons of ships per month. By Novem- 
ber, 1915, the amount of tonnage destroyed per 
month was close to 200,000 tons. By January, 
1916, the tonnage of ships destroyed by subma- 
rines had fallen to under 100,000 tons. In April, 
1916, as Grand Admiral von Tirpitz' followers 
made one more effort to make the submarine war- 
fare successful, nearly 275,000 tons were being de- 



204 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

stroyed a month. But after the sinking of the 
Sussex and the growing possibilities of war with 
the United States the submarine warfare was 
again held back and in July less than 125,000 tons 
of shipping were destroyed. 

At this time, however, the submarine campaign 
itself underwent a change. Previously most of 
the ships destroyed were sunk o:ff the coast of 
England, France or in the Mediterranean. Dur- 
ing the year and a half of the submarine cam- 
paign the Allies ' method of catching and destroy- 
ing submarines became so effective it was too cost- 
ly to maintain submarine warfare in belligerent 
waters. The German Navy had tried all kinds of 
schemes but none was very successful. After 
the sinking of the Ancona the Admiralty planned 
for two submarines to work together, but this 
was not as successful as it might have been. Dur- 
ing May, June and July the submarine warfare 
was practically given up as the losses of ships 
during those months will show. There was a 
steep decline from a quarter of a million tons in 
April to less than 140,000 tons in May, about 125,- 
000 tons in June and not much more than 100,000 
tons in July. 

During these three months the Navy was being 
bitterly criticised for its inactivity. But as the 
events six months later will show the German 
navy simply used these months to prepare for a 
much stronger submarine campaign which was to 
begin in August. By this time it was decided, 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS S05 

however, not to lisk a submarine campaign off 
the Allied coasts but to operate in the Atlantic, 
off the coasts of Spain and Norway. This method 
of submarine warfare proved very successful and 
by November, 1916, Germany was sinking over 
425,000 tons of ships per month. 

During this swell in the success of the subma- 
rine campaign the U-53 was despatched across the 
Atlantic to operate off the United States coasts. 

U-53 was sent here for two purposes : First, it 
was to demonstrate to the American people that, 
in event of war, submarines could work terror off 
the Atlantic coast. Second, it was to show the 
naval authorities whether their plans for an at- 
tack on Autnerican shipping would be practical. 
U-53 failed to terrorise 'the United States, but it 
proved to the Admiralty that excursions to Amer- 
ican waters were feasible. 

On February 1, when the Kaiser defied the 
United States by threatening all neutral shipping 
in European waters, Germany had four hundred 
undersea boats completed or in course of con- 
struction. This included big U-boats, like the 
U-53, with a cruising radius of five thousand 
miles, and the smaller craft, with fifteen-day ra- 
dius, for use against England, as well as supply 
ships and mine layers. But not all these were 
ready for use against the Allies and the United 
States at that time. About one hundred were 
waiting for trained crews or were being com- 
pleted in German shipyards. 



206 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

It was often said in Berlin that tlie greatest 
loss when a submarine failed to return was the 
crew. It required more time to train the men 
than to build the submarine. According to Ger- 
many's new method of construction, a submarine 
can be built in fifteen days. Parts are stamped 
out in the factories and assembled at the wharves. 
But it takes from sixty to ninety days to educate 
the men and get them accustomed to the seasick 
motion of the U-boats. Besides, it requires ex- 
perienced officers to train the new men. 

To meet this demand Germany began months 
ago to train men who could man the newest sub- 
marines. So a school was established — a School 
of Submarine Murder — and for many months the 
man who torpedoed the Lusitania was made chief 
of the staff of educators. It was a new task for 
German kultur. 

For the German people the lessons of the Lusi- 
tania have been exactly opposite those normal 
people would learn. The horror of non-combat- 
ants going down on a passenger liner, sunk with- 
out warning, was nothing to be compared to the 
heroism of aiming the torpedo and running away. 
Sixty-eight million Germans think their subma- 
rine officers and crews are the greatest of the 
great. 

When the Berlin Foreign Office announced, 
after the sinking of the Sussex^ that the nithless 
torpedoing of ships would be stopped the German 
statesmen meant this method would be discontin- 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 207 

ued until there were sufficient submarines to defy 
the United States. At once the German navy, 
which has always been anti-American, began 
building submarines night and day. Every one in 
the Government knew the time would come when 
Germany would have to break its Sussex pledge. 

The German navy 'early realised the need for 
trained men, so it recalled, temporarily, for edu- 
cational work the man who sank the Lusitania. 

^^But, who sank the Lusitania?'^ you ask. 

'^The torpedo which sank the Lusitania and 
killed over one hundred Americans and hundreds 
of other noncombatants was fired by Oberleutnant 
zur See (First Naval Lieutenant) Otto Stein- 
brink, commander of one of the largest German 
submarines.'' 

^^Was he punished!'' you ask. 

** Kaiser Wilhelm decorated him with the high- 
est military order, the Pour le Merite!" 

^' Where is Steinbrink now?" 

*^0n December 8, 1916, the German Admiralty 
announced that he had just returned from a spe- 
cial trip, having torpedoed and mined twenty-two 
ships on one voyage." 

**What had he been doing?" 

**For several months last summer he trained 
officers and crews in this branch of warfare, which 
gained him international notoriety." 

It is said that Steinbrink has trained more na- 
val men than any other submarine commander. 
If this be true, is there any wonder that Germany 



208 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

should be prepared to conduct a ruthless subma- 
rine warfare throughout the world? Is it sur- 
prising that American ships should be sunk, 
American citizens murdered and the United States 
Government defied when the German navy has 
been employing the man who murdered the pas- 
sengers of the Lusitania as the chief instructor 
of submarine murderers! 

The Krupp interests have played a leading role 
in the war, not only by manufacturing billions of 
shells and cannon, and by financing propaganda 
in the United States, but by building submarines. 
At the Krupp wharves at Kiel some of the best 
undersea craft are launched. Other shipyards at 
Bremen, Hamburg and Danzig have been mobi- 
lised for this work, too. Just a few weeks before 
diplomatic relations were broken a group of 
American doctors, who were investigating prison 
camp conditions, went to Danzig. Here they 
learned that the twelve wharves there were build- 
ing between 45 and 50 submarines annually. 
These were the smaller type for use in the Eng- 
lish Channel. At Hamburg the Hamburg- Ameri- 
can Line wharves were mobilised for submarine 
construction also. At the time diplomatic rela- 
tions were severed observers in Germany esti- 
mated that 250 submarines were being launched" 
annually and that preparations were being made 
greatly to increase this number. 

Submarine warfare is a very exact and difficult 
science. Besides the skilled captain, competent 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 209 

first officers, wireless operators and artillerymen, 
engineers are needed. Each man, too, must be a 
*^seadog.'' Some of the smaller submarines toss 
like tubs when they reach the ocean and only 
toughened seamen can stand the ^^wear and tear." 
Hence the weeks and months which are necessary 
to put the men in order before they leave home 
for their first excursion in sea murder. 

But Germany has learned a great deal during 
two years of hit-and-miss submarine campaigns. 
When von Tirpitz began, in 1915, he ordered his 
men to work off the coasts of England. Then so 
many submarines were lost it became a danger- 
ous and expensive military operation. The Al- 
lies began to use great steel nets, both as traps 
and as protection to warships. The German navy 
learned this within a very short time, and the 
military engineers were ordered to perfect a tor- 
pedo which would go through a steel net. The 
first invention was a torpedo with knives on the 
nose. When the nose hit the net there was a 
minor explosion. The knives were sent through 
the net, permitting the torpedo to continue on its 
way. Then the Allies doubled the nets, and two 
sets of knives were attached to the German tor- 
pedoes. But gradually the Allies employed nets 
as traps. These were anchored or dragged by 
fishing boats. Some submarines have gotten in- 
side, been juggled around, but have escaped. 
More, perhaps, have been lost this way. 

Then, when merchant ships began to carry ar- 



210 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

mament, the periscopes were shot away, so the 
navy invented a so-called ''finger-periscope/' a 
thin rod pipe with a mirror at one end. This 
rod could be shoved out from the top of the sub- 
marine and used for observation purposes in case 
the big periscope was destroyed. From time to 
time there were other inventions. As the subma- 
rine fleet grew the means of communicating with 
each other while submerged at sea were perfected. 
Copper plates were fastened fore and aft on the 
outside of submarines, and it was made possible 
for wireless messages to be sent through the wa- 
ter at a distance of fifty miles. 

A submarine cannot aim at a ship without some 
object as a sight. So one submarine often acted 
as a ^^ sight'' for the submarine firing the torpedo. 
Submarines, which at first were unarmed, were 
later fitted with armour plate and cannon were 
mounted on deck. The biggest submarines now 
carry 6-inch guns. 

Like all methods of ruthless warfare the sub- 
marine campaign can be and will be for a time 
successful. Germany's submarine warfare to- 
day is much more successful than the average per- 
son realises. By December, 1916, for instance, 
the submarines were sinking a half million tons 
of ships a month. In January, 1917, over 600,000 
tons were destroyed. On February nearly 800,000 
tons were lost. The destruction of ships means 
a corresponding destruction of cargoes, of many 
liundreds of thousands of tons. When Germany 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 211 

decided the latter part of January to begin a 
ruthless campaign German authorities calculated 
they could sink an average of 600,000 tons per 
month and that in nine months nearly 6,000,000 
tons of shipping could be sent to the bottom of 
the ocean, — then the Allies would be robbed of 
the millions of tons of goods which these ships 
could carry. 

In any military campaign one of the biggest 
problems is the transportation of troops and sup- 
plies. Germany during this war has had to de- 
pend upon her railroads; the Allies have de- 
pended upon ships. Germany looked at her own 
military situation and saw that if the Allies could 
destroy as many railroad cars as Germany ex- 
pected to sink ships, Germany would be broken 
up and unable to continue the war. Germany be- 
lieved ships were to the Allies what railroad car- 
riages are to Germany. 

The General Staff looked at the situation from 
other angles. During the winter there was a tre- 
mendous coal shortage in France and Italy. 
There had been coal riots in Paris and Rome. The 
Italian Government was so in need of coal that it 
had to confiscate even private supplies. The 
Grand Hotel in Rome, for instance, had to give 
up 300 tons which it had in its coal bins. In 1915 
France had been importing 2,000,000 tons of coal 
a month across the Channel from England. Be- 
cause of the ordinary loss of tonnage the French 
coal imports dropped 400,000 tons per month. 



212 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Germany calculated that if she could decrease 
England's coal exports 400,000 tons a month by 
an ordinary submarine campaign that she could 
double it by a ruthless campaign. 

Germany was looking forward to the Allied of- 
fensive which was expected this Spring. Ger- 
many knew that the Allies would need troops and 
ammunition. She knew that to manufacture am- 
munition and war supplies coal was needed. Ger- 
many calculated that if the coal importations to 
France could be cut down a million tons a month 
France would not be able to manufacture the nec- 
essary ammunition for an offensive lasting sev- 
eral months. 

Germany knew that England and France were 
importing thousands of tons of war supplies and 
food from the United States. Judging from the 
German newspapers which I read at this time 
every one in Germany had the impression that the 
food situation in England and France was almost 
as bad as in Germany. Even Ambassador Gerard 
had somewhat the same impression. When he 
left Germany for Switzerland on his way to 
Spain, he took two cases of eggs which he had 
purchased in Denmark. One night at a reception 
in Berne, one of the American women in the Ge- 
rard party asked the French Ambassador whether 
France really had enough food! If the Ameri- 
cans coming from Germany had the impression 
that the Allies were sorely in need of supplies one 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 213 

can see how general the impression must have 
been throughout Germany. 

When I was in Paris I was surprised to see so 
much food and to see such a variety. Paris ap- 
peared to be as normal in this respect as Copen- 
hagen or Rotterdam. But I was told by Ameri- 
can women who were keeping house there that it 
was becoming more and more difficult to get food. 

After Congress declared war it became evident 
for the first time that the Allies really did need 
war supplies and food from the United States 
more than they "needed anything else. London 
and Paris officials publicly stated that this was 
the kind of aid the Allies really needed. It be- 
came evident, too, that the Allies not only needed 
the food but that they needed ships to carry sup- 
plies across the Atlantic. One of the first things 
President Wilson did was to approve plans for 
the construction of a fleet of 3,000 wooden ships 
practically to bridge the Atlantic. 

During the first three months of 1917 subma- 
rine warfare was a success in that it so decreased 
the ship tonnage and the importations- of the Al- 
lies that they needed American co-operation and 
assistance. So the United States really enters the 
war at the critical and decisive stage. Germany 
believes she can continue to sink ships faster 
than they can be built, but Germany did not cal- 
culate upon a fleet of wooden bottom vessels be- 
ing built in the United States to make up for the 
losses. Germany did not expect the United States 



214 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

to enter the war with all the vigour and energy 
of the American people. Germany calculated upon 
internal troubles, upon opposition to the war and 
upon the pacifists to have America make as many 
mistakes as England did during the first two 
years of the war. But the United States has 
learned and profited by careful observation in 
Europe. Just as England's declaration of war 
on Germany in support of Belgium and France 
was a surprise to Germany; just as the shipment 
of war supplies by American firms to the Allies 
astonished Germany, so will the construction of 
3,000 wooden vessels upset the calculations of the 
German General Staff. 

While American financial assistance will be a 
great help to the Allies that will not affect the 
German calculations because when the Kaiser and 
his Generals decided on the 27th of January to 
damn all neutrals, German financiers were not 
consulted. 

Neither did the German General Staff count 
upon the Russian Revolution going against them. 
Germany had expected a revolution there, but 
Germany bet upon the Czar and the Czar's Ger- 
man wife. As Lieutenant Colonel von Haeften, 
Chief Military Censor in Berlin, told the corre- 
spondents, Germany calculated upon the internal 
troubles in Russia aiding her. But the Allies and 
the people won the Russian Revolution. Ger- 
many's hopes that the Czar might again return 
to power or that the people might overthrow their 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 215 

present democratic leaders will come to naught 
now that America has declared war and thrown 
her tremendous and unlimited moral influence be- 
hind the Allies and with the Russian people. 

Rear Admiral Hollweg's calculations that 
24,253,615 tons of shipping remained for the 
world freight transmission at the beginning of 
1917, did not take into consideration confiscation 
by the United States of nearly 2,500,000 tons of 
German and Austrian shipping in American 
ports. He did not expect the United States to 
build 3,000 new ships in 1917. He did not expect 
the United States to purchase the ships under 
construction in American wharves for neutral 
European countries. 

The German submarine campaign, like all other 
German ^^ successes,'' will be temporary. Every 
time the General Staff has counted upon ^ ^ ultimate 
victory'' it has failed to take into consideration 
the determination of the enemy. Germany be- 
lieved that the world could be ^'knocked out" by 
big blows. Germany thought when she destroyed 
and invaded Belgium and northern France that 
these two countries would not be able to ^^come 
back. ' ' Germany thought when she took Warsaw 
and a great part of western Russia that Russia 
would not be able to continue the war. Germany 
figured that after the invasion of Roumania and 
Servia that these two countries would not need 
to be considered seriously in the future. Germany 



216 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

believed that her submarine campaign would be 
successful before the United States could come to 
the aid of the Allies. German hope of ^'ultimate 
victory'^ has been postponed ever since Septem- 
ber, 1914, when von Kluck failed to take Paris. 
And Germany's hopes for an ^^ ultimate victory" 
this sunamer before the United States can get into 
the war will be postponed so long that Germany 
will make peace not on her own terms but upon 
the terms which the United States of Democracy 
of the Whole World will dictate. 

One day in Paris I met Admiral LeCaze, the 
Minister of Marine, in his office in the Admiralty. 
He discussed the submarine warfare from every 
angle. He said the Germans, when they figured 
upon so many tons of shipping and of supplies de- 
stroyed by submarines, failed to take into consid- 
eration the fact that over 100 ships were arriving 
daily at French ports and that over 5,000,000 
tons of goods were being brought into France 
monthly. 

When I explained to him what it appeared to 
me would be the object of the German ruthless 
campaign he said : 

^'Germany cannot win the war by her subma- 
rine campaign or by any other weapon. That 
side will win which holds out one week, one day or 
one hour longer than the other." 

And this Admiral, who, dressed in civilian 
clothes, looked more Kke a New York financier 



THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS 217 

than a naval officer, leaned forward in his chair, 
looked straight at me and concluded the interview 
by saying: 

*^The Allies will win/' 



CHAPTER X 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 



DURING the Somme battles several of the 
American correspondents in Berlin were 
invited to go to the front near Peronne 
and were asked to luncheon by the Bavarian Gen- 
eral von Kirchhoff, who was in command against 
the French. When the correspondents reached 
his headquarters in a little war-worn French vil- 
lage they were informed that the Kaiser had just 
summoned the general to decorate him with the 
high German military order, the Pour le Merite. 
Luncheon was postponed until the general re- 
turned. The correspondents watched him motor 
to the chateau where they were and were sur- 
prised to see tears in his eyes as he stepped out 
of the automobile and received the cordial greet- 
ings and congratulations of his staff, von Kirch- 
hoff, in a brief impromptu speech, paid a high 
tribute to the German troops which were holding 
the French and said the decoration was not his 
but his troops ^ And in a broken voice he re- 
marked that these soldiers were sacrificing their 
lives for the Fatherland, but were called ^^Huns 
and Barbarians'' for doing it. There was an- 

218 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 219 

other long pause and the general broke down, 
cried and had to leave his staff and guests. 

These indictments of the Allies were more ter- 
rible to him than the war itself. 

General von Kirchholf in this respect is typical 
of Germany. Most Germans, practically every 
German I knew, could not understand why the Al- 
lies did not respect their enemies as the Germans 
said they respected the Allies. 

A few weeks later, in November, when I was 
on the Somme with another group of correspond- 
ents, I was asked by nearly every officer I met why 
it was that Germany was so hated throughout the 
world. It was a question I could not easily answer 
without, perhaps, hurting the feelings of the men 
who wanted to know, or insulting them, which as a 
guest I did not desire to do. 

A few days later on the train from Cambrai to 
Berlin I was asked by a group of officers to ex- 
plain why the people in the United States, espe- 
cially, were so bitter. To get the discussion un- 
der way the Captain from the General Staff who 
had acted as our escort presented his indictment 
of American neutrality and asked me to reply. 

This feeling, this desire to know why Germany 
was regarded as an outlawed nation, was not pres- 
ent in Germany early in 1915 when I arrived. In 
February, 1915, people were confident. They were 
satisfied with the progress of the war. They knew 
the Allies hated them and they returned the hate 
and did not care. But between February, 1915, 



220 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

and November, 1916, a great change took place. 
On my first trip to the front in April, 1915, I 
heard of no officers or men shedding tears because 
the Allies hated them. 

When I sailed from New York two years ago it 
seemed to me that sentiment in the United States 
was about equally divided; that most people fa- 
voured neutrality, even a majority of those who 
supported the Entente. The feeling of sympathy 
which so many thousands of Americans had for 
Germany I could, at that time, readily under- 
stand, because I myself was sympathetic. I felt 
that Germany had not had a fighting chance with 
public opinion in the United States. 

I could not believe that all the charges against 
Germany applied to the German people. Al- 
though it was difficult to understand what Ger- 
many had done in Belgium, although it was evi- 
dent and admitted by the Chancellor that Ger- 
many violated the neutrality of that country, 
I could not believe that a nation, which before the 
war had such a high standing in science and com- 
merce, could have plotted or desired such a tre- 
mendous war as swept Europe in 1914. 

When I arrived in Berlin on March 17, 1915, 
and met German officials and people for the first 
time, I was impressed by their sincerity, their hon- 
esty and their belief that the Government did not 
cause the war and was fighting to defend the na- 
tion. At the theatre I saw performances of 
Shakespeare, which were among the best I had 



S>ie tt& et^ett Sdtflagen toateu vox bent Stfc^dnen oet* 
fitiffctt. — @x»c6ctt ctft^lettcn: 

MPent Blun 

Bmetilia«9^i33en 

©ijt Jtciiet Srifiou^atteS jlc5t ©ttexl^elE ficgcit baS ^atxb 
SSd&crrity ju Sel&c, baS et ouS eiscttct anft^auutts firlltt6» 
ric& !ettnett un5 — oerlad^cn ficlcrnt l&at ein Slid auf tie 
untcnftc^ettSen ^aptteMtc6crfd^riftcn ficniiflt, urn »ti cr- 
fennctt, 5a6 njit c§ niieScxum mit ciitcm SBctfe au fatn 
5a&cn, "6a§ o5itefiIeiif)en un5 o^ne Seif^iel tft, mie c3 autl^ 
bic anbctcn SSerfe gttet&eE§ fin5. ^ijci^ gC^« 9W* 5» 



Sn^altsangafie: 
1. aiS S5ott»i>tt: ^tcfrt&cttt 1 14. aJlan5attatt=5lcB<t. 
SBIuff befc^ioiJtt in Statfii- 15. Site Sefentt-er au 



dffet 



§eutb, ^Put^mfirmetn un5 
gtcitfttefeltt lien Ocljl fei:. 
net Unftet6It(fy!ctt 

2. .^aifer, S^ic^ crufee td&. 

3. 5>cr ^QtaV, Set „5i>ie= 
iraf" un5 ber „lan§ ie= 
luiifjnlicftc ©uropaer". 

4. Qm i^amflf mit amert!a= 
ttif(i&em Sfijlcidmct 

5. gamUie ,;Sd)anb" (®cnt). 

6. S;cr SRcinfaa be§ JRftuI^ 

7. 3)et fiejo^mtc ^araoieS^' 
p^an. 

8. S3icr ^doianc, cin SJlann 
u. cine Rclbcne ?^nflfrou. 



SBelt uni) nixft einer. (S)ic 

16. „2t&er mein S>oIIar tann 
alleSi" (Sin 26eEen=Sc- 
fcntttttiS in fiinf Siunbcn.) 

17. S)cr ^teffibent Ia(^ Tt* 
feitt S;otett'Iieb (&anfl au§ 
etnem aufflerifdjtcn ©ricf* 
facf). 

18. 2tn bctt 5ci6ctt ©urine* 
icaffcrn bet ,>9llefm" fallen 
fie uttb fin^en ^iap9<rc- 
fc^lanfictt. 

19. Sic totctt ©efpcnRcT 
im roeifeen $aufc van 
2Baf5infltott. 



9. SCRiB u. 2Jliftet UntetrcHf. 20. Srubcr J^onat^an, too 



10. S)a5 «Petlcn6u5n. ((Sine 
&t\d)id]tt mit fc^ fie= 
bampfter ©tinrme.) 

11. SJlittionat-SSetbunB. 

12. Son SSinb unb mcitfiQcn 
SSabcn — unb matum bet 



itedft btt? 

21. Sex &UW8 ars (Stjie^cr. 

22. 2>ie ©etiiictten b. 8a?fcr3. 

23. 25ie 2Uien=©nfleI unb 
anbcte ^anMJiirfte bc§ 
$crTflt>tt9. 



<lt\ca t)crf^i>I>en murbe- 24. S>ie beutfdje „©ro6tat*. 
13 S)eg «8re[ribenictt <Bo^n l25. 2It§ iRaC^ort: itant au§ 
' f insert bie S3t>rsiiflc feine§ I aintcrija (2>ie latc([Oxi-- 
SanbcS am cificncn Seibc fdjen afmperatioc einet 
^etunter. ' \<ii'dhmn <SeeIe). 

^unf UittiU ubti GtlctBcfs 6(!^ffen: 

SSa:5rMtt6 ©tunb ficmtfl fiir iebcn Seutfjften, unb sn=. 
mal flit ieben 2iabeutfd)cn, cinen bcr 3!f)ten, bet cin ©beling 
tft tjon bcutfdjem Slut unb beut[(5er ©ennnunfl, mit ftcifecr 

bcntft^et 2ie&e ju untfaffcu. 

ei). 6. {2teeutf(^c SBiattet. STfoittB.) 

ADVERTISEMENT IN THE BERLIN ''DEUTSCHE TAGESZEITUNG" 
THE BOOK '"PRESIDENT BLUFF/' MEANING PRESIDENT WILSON 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 221 

ever seen. I marvelled at the wonderful modern 
hospitals and at the efficiency and organisation 
of the Government. I marvelled at the expert 
ways in which prison camps were administered. 
I was surprised to find railroad trains clean and 
punctual. It seemed to me as if Germany was a 
nation which had reached the height of perfection 
and that it was honestly and conscientiously de- 
fending itself against the group of powers which 
desired its destruction. 

For over a year I entered enthusiastically into 
the work of interpreting and presenting this Ger- 
many to the American people. At this time there 
was practically no food problem. German banks 
and business men were preparing for and expect- 
ing peace. The Government was already making 
plans for after the war when soldiers would re- 
turn from the front, A Reichstag Committee had 
been appointed to study Germany's possible 
peace time labour needs and to make arrange- 
ments for solving them. 

But in the fall of 1915 the changes began. The 
Lusitania had been destroyed in May and almost 
immediately the hate campaign against America 
was started. I saw the tendency to attack and be- 
little the United States grow not only in the army, 
in the navy and in the press, but among the peo- 
ple. I saw that Germany was growing to deeply 
resent anything the United States Government 
said against what the German Government did. 
When this anti- American campaign was launched 



222 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

I observed a tendency on the part of the Foreign 
Office to censor more strictly the telegrams which 
the correspondents desired to send to the Ameri- 
can newspapers. Previously, the Foreign Office 
had been extremely frank and cordial and permit- 
ted correspondents to send what they observed 
and heard, as long as the despatches did not con- 
tain information which would aid the Allies in 
their military or economic attacks on Germany. 
As the hate articles appeared in the newspapers 
the correspondents were not only prohibited from 
sending them, but they were criticised by the For- 
eign Office for writing anything which might 
cause the American people to be angered at Ger- 
many. One day I made a translation of a bitter 
article in the B. Z, am Mittag and submitted it to 
the Foreign Office censor. He asked why I paid 
so much attention to articles in this newspaper 
which he termed a '^Kaese-blatf — ^literally ^^a 
cheese paper.'' He said it had no influence in 
Germany; that no one cared what it said. This 
newspaper, however, was the only noon-day edi- 
tion in Berlin and was published by the largest 
newspaper publishing house in Germany, Ullstein 
& Co. At his request I withdrew the telegram and 
forgot the incident. Within a few days, however. 
Count zu Reventlow, in the Deutsche Tageszei- 
tung, and Georg Bernhard, in the Vossische Zei- 
tung, wrote sharp attacks on President "Wilson. 
But I could not telegraph these. 
Previous to the fall of 1915 not only the Ger- 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 223 

man Government but the German people were 
charitable to the opinions of neutrals, especially 
those who happened to be in Germany for business 
or professional reasons, but, as the anti-Amer- 
ican campaign and the cry that America was not 
neutral by permitting supplies to be shipped to 
the Allies became more extensive, the public be- 
came less charitable. Previously a neutral in 
Germany could be either pro-German, pro-Ally 
or neutral. Now, however, it was impossible to 
be neutral, especially if one were an American, 
because the very statement that one was an Amer- 
ican carried with it the implication that one was 
anti-German. The American colony itself became 
divided. There was the pro-American group and 
the pro-German government group. The former 
was centred at the American Embassy. The lat- 
ter was inspired by the German- Americans who 
had lived in Germany most of their lives and by 
other sympathetic Americans who came from the 
United States. Meanwhile there were printed in 
German newspapers many leading articles and in- 
terviews from the American press attacking Pres- 
ident Wilson, and any one sympathising with the 
President, even Ambassador Gerard, became au- 
tomatically ' * Deutschf eidlich. ' ' 

As the submarine warfare became more and 
more a critical issue German feeling towards the 
United States changed. I found that men who 
were openly professing their friendship for the 
United States were secretly doing everything 



^M GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

within their power to intimidate America. The 
Government began to feel as if the American fac- 
tories which were supplying the Allies were as 
much subject to attack as similar factories in 
Allied countries. I recall one time learning at the 
American Embassy that a man named Wulf von 
Igel had asked Ambassador Gerard for a safe 
conduct, on the ground that he was going to the 
United States to try and have condensed milk 
shipped to Germany for the children. Mr. Ge- 
rard refused to ask Washington to grant this man 
a safe conduct. I did not learn until several 
months afterwards that Herr von Igel had been 
asked to go to the United States by Under Sec- 
retary of State Zimmermann for one of two pur- 
poses, either he was to purchase a controlling in- 
terest in the Du Pont Powder Mills no matter 
what that cost, or he was to stir up dissatisfac- 
tion in Mexico. Zimmermann gave him a card 
of introduction to Count von Bernstorff, the Ger- 
man Ambassador in "Washington, and told him 
that the German Embassy would supply him with 
all necessary funds. 

Carrying out the German idea that it was right 
to harm or destroy American property which was 
directly or indirectly aiding the Allies, both 
Germany and Austria-Hungary published no- 
tices that their citizens in the United States 
were not permitted to work in such factories. 
And plots which Captains Boy-Ed and von 
Papen instigated here were done with the 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 225 

approval and encouragement of the German 
Government. If any proof is needed for this 
statement, in addition to that already published, 
it is that both of these men upon their return to 
Germany were regarded as heroes and given the 
most trusted positions. Captain Boy-Ed was 
placed at the head of the Intelligence Department 
of the Navy and Captain von Papen was assigned 
to the Headquarters of the General Commanding 
the operations on the Somme. 

As the food situation in Germany became worse 
the disposition of the people changed still more. 
The Government had already pointed out in nu- 
merous public statements that the United States 
was not neutral because it overlooked the English 
blockade and thought only about the German sub- 
marine war. So as food difficulties developed the 
people blamed the United States and held Presi- 
dent Wilson personally responsible for the grow- 
ing shortages within Germany. The people be- 
lieved Mr. Wilson was their greatest enemy and 
that he was the man most to be feared. How 
strong this feeling was not only among the peo- 
ple but in Government circles was to be shown 
later when Germany announced her submarine 
campaign. 

As was pointed out in a previous chapter while 
Germany was arguing against shipments of war 
munitions from the United States she was herself 
responsible for the preparations which Russia and 
Roumania had made against her, but this proof 



226 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

of deception on the part of the Government was 
never explained to the German people. Further- 
more the people were never told why the United 
States asked for the recall of Germany ^s two at- 
taches who were implicated in spy plots. Noth- 
ing was ever published in the German newspa- 
pers about Herr von Igel. The newspapers al- 
ways published despatches which told of the de- 
struction of ammunition factories by plotters, but 
never about the charges against and arrests of 
German reservists. Just as the German Govern- 
ment has never permitted the people to know that 
it prepared for a war against nine nations, as the 
document I saw in the Chief Telegraph Office 
shows, so has it not explained to the people the 
real motives and the real arguments which Presi- 
dent Wilson presented in his many submarine 
notes. Whenever these notes were published in 
the German newspapers the Government always 
published an official explanation, or correspond- 
ents were inspired to write the Government views, 
so the people could not think for themselves or 
come to honest personal conclusions. 

The e:ffectiveness of Mr. Wilson ^s diplomacy 
against Germany was decreased by some German- 
Americans, and the fact that the United States is 
to-day at war with Germany is due to this blun- 
dering on the behalf of some of those over-zeal- 
ous citizens who, being so anxious to aid Ger- 
many, became anti- Wilson and in the long run de- 
feated what they set out to accomplish. Had the 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 227 

German Governinent not been assured by some 
German- Americans that they would never permit 
President Wilson to break diplomatic relations or 
go to war, had these self-appointed envoys stayed 
away from Berlin, the relations between the 
United States and Germany might to-day be dif- 
ferent than they are. Because if Germany at the 
outset of the submarine negotiations had been 
given the impression by a united America that 
the President spoke for the country, Germany 
would undoubtedly have given up all hope of a 
ruthless submarine warfare. 

I think President Wilson and Mr. Gerard real- 
ised that the activities of the German- Americans 
here were not only interfering with the diplomatic 
negotiations but that the German-Americans were 
acting against their own best interests if they 
really desired peace with Germany. 

When some of the President 's friends saw that 
the German people were receiving such biased 
news from the United States and that Germany 
had no opportunity of learning the real sentiment 
here, nor of sounding the depth of American in- 
dignation over the Lusitania they endeavoured 
to get despatches from the United States to Ger- 
many to enlighten the people. Mr. Roy W. How- 
ard, President of the United Press, endeavoured 
several times while I was in Berlin to get un- 
adulterated American news in the German news- 
papers, but the German Government was not 
overly anxious to have such information pub- 



228 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

lisbed. It was too busy encouraging the anti- 
American sentiment for the purpose of frighten- 
ing the United States. It was difficult, too, for 
the United Press to get the necessary co-opera- 
tion in the United States for this news service. 
After the settlement of the Sussex dispute the 
democratic newspapers of Germany, those which 
were supporting the Chancellor, were anxious to 
receive reports from here, but the German For- 
eign Office would not encourage the matter to 
the extent of using the wireless towers at Sayville 
and Tuckerton as means of transmitting the news. 
How zealously the Foreign Office censor guards 
what appears in the German newspapers was 
shown about two weeks before diplomatic rela- 
tions were broken. When the announcement was 
wirelessed to the United States that Germany had 
adopted the von Tirpitz blockade policy the United 
Press sent me a number of daily bulletins tell- 
ing what the American Press, Congressmen and 
the Government were thinking and saying about 
the new order. The first day these despatches 
reached me I sent them to several of the leading 
newspapers only to be notified in less than an 
hour afterward by the Foreign Office that I was 
to send no information to the German newspa- 
pers without first sending it to the Foreign Office. 
Two days after the blockade order was published 
I received a telegram from Mr. Howard saying 
that diplomatic relations would be broken, and 
giving me a summary of the press comment. I 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 229 

took tliis despatch to the Foreign Office and asked 
permission to send it to the newspapers. It was 
refused. Throughout this crisis which lasted un- 
til the 10th of February the Foreign Office would 
not permit a single despatch coming direct from 
America to be printed in the German newspapers. 
The Foreign Office preferred to have the news- 
papers publish what came by way of England and 
France so that the Government could always ex- 
plain that only English and French news could 
reach Germany because the United States was 
not interested in seeing that Germany obtained 
first hand information. 

While Germany was arguing that the United 
States was responsible for her desperate situa- 
tion, economically, and while President Wilson 
was being blamed for not breaking the Allied 
blockade, the German Foreign Office was doing 
everything within its power to prevent German 
goods from being shipped to the United States. 
When, through the efforts of Ambassador Ge- 
rard, numerous attempts were made to get Ger- 
man goods, including medicines and dye-stuffs, to 
the United States, the German Government re- 
plied that these could not leave the country unless 
an equal amount of goods were sent to Germany. 
Then, when the State Department arranged for 
an equal amount of American goods to be shipped 
in exchange the German Foreign Office said all 
these goods would have to be shipped to and from 
German ports. When the State Department lis- 



230 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

tened to tMs demand and American steamers 
were started on their way to Hamburg and Bre- 
men the German Navy was so busy sewing mines 
otf these harbours to keep the English fleet away 
that they failed to notify the American skippers 
where the open channels were. As a result so 
many American ships were sunk trying to bring 
goods into German harbours that it became un- 
profitable for American shippers to try to ac- 
commodate Germany. 

About this time, also, the German Government 
began its policy of discouraging American busi- 
ness in Germany. Ambassador Gerard had had 
a long wrangle with the Chancellor over a bill 
which was introduced in the Reichstag shortly 
after the beginning of the war to purchase all for- 
eign oil properties ^* within the German Customs 
Union." The bill was examined by Mr. Gerard, 
who, for a number of years, was a Supreme Court 
Judge of New York. He discovered that the ob- 
ject of the bill was to put the Standard Oil Com- 
pany out of business by purchasing all of this 
company's property except that located in Ham- 
burg. This was the joker. Hamburg was not in 
the German Customs Union and the bill provided 
for the confiscation of all property not in this 
Union. 

Mr. Gerard called upon the Chancellor and told 
him that the United States Government could not 
permit such a bill to be passed without a vigor- 
ous protest. The Chancellor asked Mr. Gerard 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 231 

whether President Wilson and Secretary of State 
Bryan would ever protect such a corporation as 
the Standard Oil Company was supposed to be. 
Mr. Gerard replied that the very fact that these 
two officials were known in the public mind as hav- 
ing no connection with this corporation would 
give them an opportunity of defending its inter- 
ests the same as the Government would defend the 
interests of any other American. The Chancellor 
seemed surprised at this statement and Mr. Ge- 
rard continued about as follows : 

** You know that Germany has already been dis- 
criminating against the Standard Oil Company. 
You know that the Prussian State Railways 
charge this American corporation twice as much 
to ship oil from Hamburg to Bremen as they 
charge the German oil interests to ship Rouma- 
nian oil from the Austrian border to Berlin. Now 
don't you think that's enough!" 

The interview ended here. And the bill was 
never brought up in the Reichstag. 

But this policy of the Government of intimidat- 
ing and intriguing against Amierican interests 
was continued until diplomatic relations were 
broken. In December, 1916, Adolph Barthmann, 
an American citizen, who owned the largest shoe 
store in Berlin, desired to close his place of busi- 
ness and go to the United States. It was impos- 
sible for him to get American shoes because of 
the Allied blockade and he had decided to discon- 
tinue business until peace was made. 



23S GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Throughout the war it has been necessary for 
all Americans, as well as all other neutrals, to 
obtain permission from the police before they 
could leave. Barthmann went to Police Headquar- 
ters, and asked for authority to go to the United 
States. He was informed that his passport would 
have to be examined by the General Staff and 
that he could call for it within eight days. At the 
appointed day Barthmann appeared at Police 
Headquarters where he was informed by the Po- 
lice Captain that upon orders of the General Staff 
he would have to sign a paper and swear to the 
statement that neither he nor the American firms 
he represented had sold, or would sell, shoes to 
the Allies. Barthmann was told that this state- 
ment would have to be sworn to by another Amer- 
ican resident of Berlin and that unless this was 
done he would not be permitted to return to Ger- 
many after the war. Mr. Barthmann had to sign 
the document under protest before his American 
passport was returned. 

The facts in this as in the other instances which 
I have narrated, are in the possession of the State 
Department at Washington. 

When the German Government began to fear 
that the United States might some day join the 
Allies if the submarine campaign was renewed, 
it campaigned by threatening the United States 
with a Russian-Japanese-German alliance after 
the war against England and the United States. 
These threats were not disguised. Ambassador 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 233 

i 

Gerard was informed, indirectly and unofficially 
of course, by German financiers and members of 
the Reichstag that Germany *^ would be forced'' 
to make such an alliance if the United States ever 
joined the Allies. As was shown later by the in- 
structions of Secretary of State Zimmermann to 
the German Minister in Mexico City, Germany 
has not only not given up that idea, but Germany 
now looks forward to Mexico as the fourth mem- 
ber of the league. 

As Germany became more and more suspicious 
of Americans in Germany, who were not openly 
pro-German, she made them suffer when they 
crossed the German frontier to go to neutral 
countries. The German military authorities, at 
border towns such as Warnemuende and Ben- 
theim, took a dislike to American women who 
were going to Holland or Denmark, and especial- 
ly to the wives of U. S. consular officials. One 
time when I was going from Berlin to Copenha- 
gen I learned from the husband of one of the 
women examined at the border what the authori- 
ties had done to her. I saw her before and after 
the ordeal and when I heard of what an atrocious 
examination they had made I understood why she 
was in bed ten days afterward and under the con- 
stant care of physicians. Knowing what German 
military officers and German women detectives 
had done in some of the invaded countries, one 
does not need to know the details of these in- 
sults. It is sufficient to state that after the wives 



234 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

of several American officials and other prominent 
American residents of Berlin had been treated in 
this manner that the State Department wrote a 
vigorous and defiant note to Germany stating that 
unless the practice was immediately discontinued 
the United States would give up the oversight of 
all German interests in Allied countries. The ul- 
timatum had the desired effect. The German Gov- 
ernment replied that while the order of the Gen- 
eral Staff could not be changed it would be waived 
in practice. 

No matter who the American is, who admired 
Germany, or, who respected Germany, or, who 
sympathised with Germany as she was before, or, 
at the beginning of the war, no American can sup- 
port this Germany which I have just described, 
against his own country. The Germany of 1913, 
which was admired and respected by the scien- 
tific, educational and business world ; the Germany 
of 1913 which had no poor, which took better care 
of its workmen than any nation in the world ; the 
nation, which was considered in the advance of all 
countries in dealing with economic and industrial 
problems, no longer exists. The Germany which 
produced Bach, Beethoven, Schiller, Goethe and 
other great musicians and poets has disappeared. 
The musicians of to-day write hate songs. The 
poets of to-day pen hate verses. The scientists 
of to-day plan diabolical instruments of death. 
The educators teach suspicion of and disregard 
for everything which is not German. Business 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 235 

men have sided with the Government in a ruthless 
submarine warfare in order to destroy property 
throughout the world so that every nation will 
have to begin at the bottom with Germany when 
the war is over. 

The Germany of 1914 and 1915 which arose like 
one man to defend the nation is not the Germany 
which to-day is down on the whole world and 
which believes that its organised might can de- 
fend it against every and all nations. The Ger- 
many I saw in 1915, composed of sympathetic, 
calm, charitable, patient people is to-day a Ger- 
many made up of nervous, impatient, deceptive 
and suspicious people. 

From the sinking of the Lusitania to February, 
1917, President Wilson maintained diplomatic re- 
lations with Germany in order to aid the demo- 
cratic forces w^hich were working in that country 
to throw out the poison which forty years of 
army preparation had diffused throughout the na- 
tion. President Wilson believed that he could re- 
ly upon the Chancellor as a leader of democracy 
against von Tirpitz and von Falkenhayn, as lead- 
ers of German autocracy. The Chancellor knew 
the President looked upon him as the man to re- 
form Germany. But when the crisis came the 
Chancellor was as weak as the Kaiser and both 
of them sanctioned and defended what von Hin- 
denburg and Ludendorf , the ammunition interests 
and the navy, proposed. 

If the United States were to disregard absolute- 



236 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

ly every argument whicli the Allies have for fight- 
ing Germany there would still be so many Ameri- 
can indictments against the German Government 
that no American could have a different opinion 
from that of President Wilson. 

Germany sank the Lusitania and killed over 
100 Americans and never apologised for it. 

Germany sank the Ancona, killed more Ameri- 
cans and blamed Austria. 

Germany sank the Arabic and torpedoed the 
Sussex. 

Germany promised after the sinking of the Sus- 
sex to warn all merchant ships before torpedoing 
them and then in practice threw the pledges to the 
winds and ended by breaking all promises. 

Germany started anti- American propaganda in 
Germany. 

The German Government made the German 
people suspect and hate President Wilson. 

Germany supplied Russia and Roumania with 
arms and ammunition and criticised America for 
permitting American business men to aid the Al- 
lies. 

Germany plotted against American factories. 

Germany tried to stir up a revolt in Mexico. 

Germany tried to destroy American ammuni- 
tion factories. 

Germany blamed the United States for her food 
situation without explaining to the people that 
one of the reasons the pork supply was exhausted 
and there was no sugar was because Minister of 



THE OUTLAWED NATION 237 

the Interior Delbrueck ordered the farmers to 
feed sugar to the pigs and then to slaughter them 
in order to save the fodder. 

Germany encouraged and financed German- 
Americans in their campaigns in the United 
States. 

Germany paid American writers for anti- 
American contributions to German newspapers 
and for pro-German articles in the American 
press. 

Germany prohibited Ajnerican news associa- 
tions from printing unbiased Am^^erican news in 
Germany. 

Germany discriminated against and blacklisted 
American firms doing business in Germany. 

Germany prevented American correspondents 
from sending true despatches from Berlin during 
every submarine crisis. 

Germany insulted American women, even the 
wives of American consular officials, when they 
crossed the German border. 

Germany threatened the United States with 
a Russian-Japanese-German-Mexican alliance 
against England and the United States. 

German generals insulted American military 
observers at the front and the U. S. War Depart- 
ment had to recall them. 

These are Uncle Sam's indictments of the 
Kaiser. 

Germany has outlawed herself among all na- 
tions. 



CHAPTEE XI 

THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 

WHEN the German Emperor in his New 
Year's message said that victory would 
remain with Germany in 1917 he must 
have known that the submarine war would be in- 
augurated to help bring this victory to Germany. 
In May, 1916, Admiral von Capelle explained to 
the Eeichstag that the reason the German block- 
ade of England could not be maintained was be- 
cause Germany did not have sufficient submarines. 
But by December the Kaiser, who receives all the 
figures of the Navy, undoubtedly knew that sub- 
marines were being built faster than any other 
type of ship and that the Navy was making ready 
for the grand sea offensive in 1917. Knowing this, 
as well as knowing that President Wilson would 
break diplomatic relations if the submarine war 
was conducted ruthlessly again, the Kaiser was 
a very confident ruler to write such a New Year's 
order to the Army and Navy. He must have felt 
sure that he could defeat the United States. 

Ambassador Gerard warned the State Depart- 
ment in September that Germany would start her 
submarine war before the Spring of 1917 so the 

238 



To My Army and My Navy! 

Once more a war year lies behind us, replete 
with hard fighting and sacrifices, rich in successes 
and victories. 

Our enemies ' hopes for the year 1916 have been 
blasted. All their assaults in the East and West 
were broken to pieces through your bravery and 
devotion ! 

The latest triumphal march through Eoumania 
has, by God's decree, again pinned imperishable 
laurels to your standards. 

The greatest naval battle of this war, the Ska- 
ger Rak victory, and the bold exploits of the U- 
boats have assured to My Navy glory and admira- 
tion for all time. 

You are victorious on all theatres of war, 
ashore as well as afloat! 

With unshaken trust and proud confidence the 
grateful Fatherland regards you. The incompa- 
rable warlike spirit dwelling in your ranks, your 
tenacious, untiring will to victory, your love for 
the Fatherland are guaranties to Me that victory 
will remain with our colours in the new year also. 

God will be with us further! 

Main Headquarters, Dec. 31, 1916. 

WiLHELM. 



THE KAISER S NEW YEAR ORDER TO THE ARMY AND NAVY 



mo GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

United States must have known several months 
before the official announcement came. But 
Washington probably was under the impression 
that the Chancellor would not break his word. 
Uncle Sam at that time trusted von Bethmann- 
Hollweg. 

Diplomatic relations were broken on February 
1st. Ambassador Gerard departed February 
10th. Upon his arrival in Switzerland several 
German citizens, living in that country because 
they could not endure conditions at home, asked 
the Ambassador upon his arrival in Washington 
to urge President Wilson if he asked Congress to 
declare war to say that the United States did not 
desire to go to war with the German people but 
with the German Government. One of these citi- 
zens was a Prussian nobleman by birth but he had 
been one of the leaders of the democratic forces 
in Germany and exiled himself in order to help 
the Liberal movement among the people by work- 
ing in Switzerland. This suggestion was followed 
by the President. When he spoke to the joint 
session of Congress on February 1st he declared 
the United States would wage war against the 
Government and not against the people. In this 
historic address the President said : 

^^I have called the Congress into extraordinary 
session because there are serious, very serious, 
choices of policy to be made, and made immedi- 
ately, which it was neither right nor constitu- 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 241 

tionally permissible that I should assume the re- 
sponsibility of making. 

*^0n the 3rd of February last I officially laid 
before you the extraordinary announcement of the 
Imperial German Government, that on and after 
the 1st day of February it was its purpose to put 
aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use 
its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to 
approach either the ports of Great Britain and 
Ireland or the western coasts of Europe, or any of 
the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany 
within the Mediterranean. 

*^That had seemed to be the object of the Ger- 
man submarine warfare earlier in the war, but 
since April of last year the imperial Government 
had somewhat restrained the commanders of its 
under-sea craft, in conformity with its promise 
then given to us that passenger boats should not 
be sunk, and that due warning would be given to 
all other vessels which its submarines might seek 
to destroy, when no resistance was offered or 
escape attempted, and care taken that their 
crews were given at least a fair chance to save 
their lives in their open boats. The precautions 
taken were meagre and haphazard enough, as was 
proved in distressing instance after instance in 
the progress of the cruel and unmanly business, 
but a certain degree of restraint was observed. 

*^The new policy has swept every restriction 
aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, 
their character, their cargo, their destination, 



242 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

their errand, have been rntlilessly sent to the bot- 
tom without warning and without thought of help 
or mercy for those on board, the vessels of 
friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. 
Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to 
the sorely bereaved and stricken people of Bel- 
gium, though the latter were provided with safe 
conduct through the prescribed areas by the Ger- 
man Government itself, and were distinguished 
by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk 
with the same reckless lack of compassion or of 
principle. 

*^I was for a little while imable to believe that 
such things would in fact be done by any govern- 
ment that had hitherto subscribed to the humane 
practices of civilised nations. International law 
had its origin in the attempt to set up some law, 
which would be respected and observed upon the 
seas, where no nation had right of dominion and 
where lay the free highways of the world. By 
painful stage after stage has that law been built 
up, with meagre enough results, indeed, after all 
was accomplished that could be accomplished, but 
always with a clear view at least of what the heart 
and conscience of mankind demanded. 

*^This minimum of right the German Govern- 
ment has swept aside under the plea of retaliation 
and necessity, and because it had no weapons 
which it could use at sea except these, which it is 
impossible to employ as it is employing them with- 
out throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR ^43 

or of respect for the understandings that were 
supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. 

^'I am not now thinking of the loss of property 
involved, immense and serious as that is, but only 
of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the 
lives of non-combatants, men, women and chil- 
dren, engaged in pursuits which have always, 
even in the darkest periods of modern history, 
been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property 
can be paid for ; the lives of peaceful and innocent 
people cannot be. 

*^The present German warfare against com- 
merce is a warfare against mankind. It is a war 
against all nations. American ships have been 
sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has 
stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships 
and people of other neutral and friendly nations 
have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters 
in the same way. There has been no discrimina- 
tion. The challenge is to all mankind. Each na- 
tion must decide for itself how it will meet it. 
The choice we make for ourselves must be made 
with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness 
of judgment befitting our character and our mo- 
tives as a nation. We must put excited feeling 
away. Our motive will not be revenge or the vic- 
torious assertion of the physical might of the na- 
tion, but only the vindication of right, of human 
right, of which we are only a single champion. 

'^When I addressed the Congress on the twenty- 
sixth of February last I thought that it would suf- 



244 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

fice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our 
right to use the seas against unlawful interfer- 
ence, our right to keep our people safe against un- 
lawful violence. But armed neutraUty, it now 
appears, is impracticable. 

** Because submarines are in effect outlaws when 
used as the German submarines have been used, 
against merchant shipping, it is impossible to de- 
fend ships against their attacks, as the law of 
nations has assumed that merchantmen would de- 
fend themselves against privateers or cruisers, 
visible craft giving chase upon the open sea. It 
is common prudence in such circumstances — grim 
necessity, indeed — to endeavour to destroy them 
before they have shown their own intention. They 
must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. 

*^The German Government denies the right of 
neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of the 
sea which it has proscribed, even in the defence 
of rights which no modern publicist has ever be- 
fore questioned their right to defend. The inti- 
mation is conveyed that the armed guards which 
we have placed on our merchant ships will be 
treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to 
be dealt with as pirates would be. 

^' Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at 
best ; in such circumstances and in the face of such 
pretensions it is worse than ineffectual ; it is likely 
to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is 
practically certain to draw us into the war without 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 245 

either the rights or the effectiveness of belliger- 
ents. 

^^ There is one choice we cannot make, we are 
incapable of making : We will not choose the path 
of submission and suffer the most sacred rights 
of our nation and our people to be ignored or 
violated. The wrongs against which we now ar- 
ray ourselves are not common wrongs; they cut 
to the very roots of human life. 

*^With a profound sense of the solemn and even 
tragical character of the step I am taking and of 
the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in 
unhesitating obedience to what I deem my consti- 
tutional duty, I advise that the Congress declare 
the recent course of the Imperial German Govern- 
ment to be in fact nothing less than war against 
the Government and people of the United States ; 
that it formally accept the status of belligerent 
which has thus been thrust upon it, and that it 
take immediate steps not only to put the country 
in a more thorough state of defence, but also to 
exert all its power and employ all its resources 
to bring the Government of the German Empire 
to terms and end the war. 

' ' What this will involve is clear. It will involve 
the utmost practicable co-operation in counsel and 
action with the governments now at war with 
Germany, and, as incident to that, the extension 
to those governments of the most liberal financial 
credits in order that our resources may, so far as 
possible, be added to theirs. 



^46 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

^^It will involve the organisation and mobilisa- 
tion of all the material resources of the country 
to supply the materials of war and serve the inci- 
dental needs of the nation in the most abundant 
and yet the most economical and efficient way pos- 
sible. 

'*It will involve the immediate full equipment 
of the navy in all respects, but particularly in sup- 
plying it with the best means of dealing with the 
enemy's submarines. It will involve the immedi- 
ate addition to the armed forces of the United 
States, already provided for by law in case of 
war, at least 500,000 men, who should, in my opin- 
ion, be chosen upon the principle of universal lia- 
bility to service; and also the authorisation of 
subsequent additional increments of equal force 
so soon as they may be needed and can be han- 
dled in training. 

* ^ It will involve also, of course, the granting of 
adequate credits to the Government, sustained, I 
hope, so far as they can equitably be sustained 
by the present generation, by well conceived taxa- 
tion. I say sustained so far as may be by equi- 
table taxation because it seems to me that it would 
be most unwise to base the credits which will now 
be necessary entirely on money borrowed. It is 
our duty, I most respectfully urge, to protect our 
people so far as we may against the very serious 
hardships and evils which would be likely to arise 
out of the inflation which would be produced by 
vast loans. 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 247 

**In carrying out the measures by which these 
things are to be accomplished we should keep con- 
stantly in mind the wisdom of interfering as little 
as possible in our own preparation and in the 
equipment of our own military forces with the 
duty — for it will be a very practical duty — of 
supplying the nations already at war with Ger- 
many with the materials which they can obtain 
only from us or by our assistance. They are in 
the field, and we should help them in every way to 
be effective there. 

**I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through 
the several executive departments of the Govern- 
ment, for the consideration of your committees 
measures for the accomplishment of the several 
objects I have mentioned. I hope that it will be 
your pleasure to deal with them as having been 
framed after very careful thought by the branch 
of the Government upon which the responsibility 
of conducting the war and safeguarding the na- 
tion will most directly fall. 

^^Wliile we do these things, these deeply mo- 
mentous things, let us be very clear, and make 
very clear to all the world what our motives and 
our objects are. My own thought has not been 
driven from its habitual and normal course by the 
unhappy events of the last two months, and I do 
not believe that the thought of the nation has been 
altered or clouded by them. 

**I have exactly the same thing in mind now 
that I had in mind when I addressed the Senate 



^48 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

on the 22d of January last; the same that I had 
in mind when I addressed the Congress on the 3d 
of February and on the 26th of February. Our 
object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles 
of peace and the justice in the life of the world 
as against selfish and autocratic power and to set 
up among the really free and self-governed peo- 
ples of the world such a concert of purpose and of 
action as will henceforth insure the observance 
of those principles. 

'* Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable 
where the peace of the world is involved and the 
freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that 
peace and freedom lies in the existence of auto- 
cratic governments backed by organised force 
which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the 
will of their people. We have seen the last of 
neutrality in such circumstances. 

^^We are at the beginning of an age in which 
it will be insisted that the same standards of con- 
duct and of responsibility for wrong done shall 
be observed among nations and their governments 
that are observed among the individual citizens 
of civilised states. 

^^We have no quarrel with the German people. 
"We have no feeling toward them but one of sym- 
pathy and friendship. It was not upon their im- 
pulse that their government acted in entering this 
war. It was not with their previous knowledge 
or approval. 

**It was a war determined upon as wars used 



^labDcrabatfd) 



Scrlin. 
3n-riic. Seiblat. -.TViUVUI^'VWVWfpW; <>cn14. 3»nd«. 1917 



SBiljons gricbcnspfcifc 




,Um S'lomeUmiHen, gtoitt JoBptlinB. »i« tanit 8u»c flicgt iq in bU Saft, stnn ftltr gccaa^t »US.* 



SCHWAB TO MR. WILSON — '*FOR HEAVEN's SAKE, 
GREAT LITTLE LEADER, THE WHOLE PLACE WILL 
BLOW UP IF YOU SMOKE HERe!" 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 249 

to be determined upon in the old nnliappy days 
wlien peoples were nowhere consulted by their 
rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the 
interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambi- 
tious men who were accustomed to use their fel- 
lowmen as pawns and tools. 

^^ Self -governed nations do not fill their neigh- 
bour states with spies or set the course of in- 
trigue to bring about some critical posture of 
atfairs which will give them an opportunity to 
strike and make conquest. Such designs can be 
successfully worked only under cover and where 
no one has the right to ask questions. 

^ ^ Cunningly contrived plans of deception or ag- 
gression, carried, it may be, from generation to 
generation, can be worked out and kept from the 
light only within the privacy of courts or behind 
the carefully guarded confidences of a narrow and 
privileged class. They are happily impossible 
where public opinion commands and insists upon 
full information concerning all the nation's af- 
fairs. 

**A steadfast concert for peace can never be 
maintained except by a partnership of democratic 
nations. No autocratic government could be 
trusted to keep faith within it or observe its 
covenants. 

**It must be a league of honour, a partnership 
of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; 
the plottings of inner circles who could plan what 



250 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

they would and render account to no one would 
be a corruption seated at its very heart. 

*'Only free peoples can hold their purpose and 
their honour steady to a common end and prefer 
the interests of mankind to any narrow interest 
of their own. 

*^Does not every American feel that assurance 
has been added to our hope for the future peace 
of the world by the wonderful and heartening 
things that have been happening within the last 
few weeks in Russia? 

** Russia was known by those who knew it best 
to have been always in fact democratic at heart, 
in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the 
intimate relationships of her people that spoke 
for their natural instinct, their habitual attitude 
toward life. 

*' Autocracy that crowned the summit of her po- 
litical structure, long as it had stood and terrible 
as was the reality of its power, was not in fact 
Russian in origin, in character or purpose, and 
now it has been shaken, and the great, generous 
Russian people have been added in all their na- 
tive majesty and might to the forces that are 
fighting for freedom in the world, for justice and 
for peace. Here is a fit partner for a league of 
honour. 

* * One of the things that have served to convince 
us that the Prussian autocracy was not and could 
never be our friend is that from the very outset 
of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 251 

communities and even our offices of government 
with spies, and set criminal intrigues everywhere 
afoot against our national unity of council, oui* 
peace within and without, our industries and our 
commerce. 

*^ Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were 
here even before the war began ; and it is unhap- 
pily not a matter of conjecture, but a fact proved 
in our courts of justice, that the intrigues, which 
have more than once come perilously near to dis- 
turbing the peace and dislocating the industries 
of the country, have been carried on at the insti- 
gation, with the support, and even under the per- 
sonal direction, of official agents of the imperial 
Government accredited to the Government of the 
United States. 

**Even in checking these things and trying to 
extirpate them we have sought to put the most 
generous interpretation possible upon them, be- 
cause we knew that their source lay, not in any 
hostile feeling or purpose of the German people 
toward us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of 
them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish 
designs of a government that did what it pleased 
and told its people nothing. But they have played 
their part in serving to convince us at last that 
that Government entertains no real friendship for 
us, and means to act against our peace and se- 
curity at its convenience. 

*^That it means to stir up enemies against us 
at our very doors the intercepted note to the Ger- 



252 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

man Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence. 

'*We are accepting this challenge of hostile 
purpose because we know that in such a govern- 
ment, following such methods, we can never have 
a friend, and that in the presence of its organised 
power, always lying in wait to accomplish we 
know not what purpose, there can be no assured 
security for the democratic governments of the 
world. 

*^We are now about to accept gage of battle 
with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if neces- 
sary^ spend the whole force of the nation to check 
and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are 
glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of 
false pretence about them, to fight thus for the 
ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation 
of its peoples, the German peoples included, for 
the rights of nations great and small, and the 
privilege of men everywhere to choose their way 
of life and of obedience. 

**The world must be made safe for democracy. 
Its peace must be planted upon the trusted foun- 
dations of political liberty. 

**We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire 
no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indem- 
nities for ourselves, no material compensation for 
the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but 
one of the champions of the rights of mankind. 
We shall be satisfied when those rights have been 
as secure as the faith and the freedom of the na- 
tion can make them. 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 253 

**Just because we fight without rancour and 
without selfish objects, seeking nothing for our- 
selves but what we shall wish to share with all 
free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our 
operations as belligerents without passion and 
ourselves observe with proud punctilio the prin- 
ciples of right and of fair play we profess to be 
fighting for. 

*^I have said nothing of the governments allied 
with the imperial Government of Germany, be- 
cause they have not made war upon us or chal- 
lenged us to defend our right and our honour. 
The Austro-Hungarian Government has, indeed, 
avowed its unqualified indorsement and accept- 
ance of the reckless and lawless submarine war- 
fare adopted now without disguise by the imperial 
Government, and it has therefore not been pos- 
sible for this Government to receive Count Tar- 
nowski, the ambassador recently accredited to this 
Government by the imperial and royal Govern- 
ment of Austria-Hungary, but that Government 
has not actually engaged in warfare against citi- 
zens of the United States on the seas, and I take 
the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing 
a discussion of our relations with the authorities 
at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are 
clearly forced into it because there are no other 
means of defending our rights. 

*^It will be all the easier for us to conduct our- 
selves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and 
fairness because we act without animus, not in 



254 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring 
any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only 
in armed opposition to an irresponsible govern- 
ment which has thrown aside all considerations 
of humanity and of right and is running amuck. 

*^We are, let me say again, the sincere friends 
of the German people, and shall desire nothing so 
much as the early re-establishment of intimate 
relations of mutual advantage between us — how- 
ever hard it may be for them, for the time being, 
to believe that this is spoken from our hearts. 
"We have borne with their present Government 
through all these bitter months because of that 
friendship — exercising a patience and forbear- 
ance which would otherwise have been impossible. 

*^We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to 
prove that friendship in our daily attitude and ac- 
tions toward the millions of men and women of 
German birth and native sympathy who live 
amongst us and share our life, and we shall be 
proud to prove it toward all who are in fact loyal 
to their neighbours and to the Government in the 
hour of test. They are, most of them, as true and 
loyal Americans as if they had never known any 
other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt 
to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the 
few who may be of a different mind and purpose. 

**If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt 
with with a firm hand of stern repression; but if 
it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 255 

there, and without countenance, except from a 
lawless and malignant few. 

**It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gen- 
tlemen of the Congress, which I have performed 
in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, 
many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of 
us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peace- 
ful people into war, into the most terrible and 
disastrous of all wars, civilisation itself seeming 
to be in the balance. 

*^But the right is more precious than peace, and 
we shall fight for the things which we have always 
carried nearest our hearts — for democracy, for 
the right of those who submit to authority to have 
a voice in their own governments, for the rights 
and hberties of small nations, for a universal 
dominion of right by such a concert of free peo- 
ples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations 
and make the world itself at last free. 

*^To such a task we can dedicate our lives and 
our fortunes, everything that we are and every- 
thing that we have, with the pride of those who 
know that the day has come when America is 
privileged to spend her blood and her might for 
the principles that gave her birth and happiness 
and the peace which she has treasured. God help- 
ing her, she can do no other. ' ' 

After this speech was printed in Germany, first 
in excerpts and then as a whole in a few papers, 
there were three distinct reactions : 



256 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

1. The Government press and the circles con- 
trolled by the Army published violent articles 
against President Wilson and the United States. 

2. The democratic press led by the Vorwaerts 
took advantage of Wilson's statements to again 
demand election reforms. 

3. Public feeling generally was so aroused that 
the official North German Gazette said at the end 
of a long editorial that the Kaiser favoured a 
** people's kingdom of Hohenzollern. " 

The ammunition interests were among the first 
to express their satisfaction with America as an 
enemy. The Rheinische Westfaelische Zeitung, 
their official graphophone, said: 

^^The real policy of America is now fully dis- 
closed by the outbreak of the war. Now a flood 
of lies and insults, clothed in pious phraseology, 
will descend on us. This is a surprise only to 
those who have been reluctant to admit that 
America was our enemy from the beginning. The 
voice of America does not sound differently from 
that of any other enemy. They are all tarred with 
the same brush — those humanitarians and demo- 
crats who hurl the world into war and refuse 
peace." 

The Lokal Anseiger, which is practically edited 
by the Foreign Office, said President Wilson's at- 
tempt to ** inveigle the German people into a re- 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 257 

volt against the dynasty beats anything for sheer 
hypocrisy in the records of the world. 

*'We must assume that President Wilson delib- 
erately tells an untruth. Not the German Gov- 
ernment but the German race, hates this Anglo- 
Saxon fanatic, who has stirred into flame the con- 
suming hatred in America while prating friend- 
ship and sympathy for the German people.'^ 

The Lokal Anzeiger was right when it said the 
German people hated America. The Lohal An- 
zeiger was one of the means the Government used 
to make the German people hate the United 
States. 

The North German Gazette ^ which prints only 
editorials dictated, or authorised by, the Secre- 
tary of State, said: 

**A certain phrase in President Wilson's speech 
must be especially pointed out. The President 
represents himself as the bearer of true freedom 
to our people who are engaged in a severe strug- 
gle for their existence and liberty. What slave 
soul does he believe exists in the German people 
when it thinks that it will allow its freedom to be 
meted out to them from without? The freedom 
which our enemies have in store for us we know 
sufficiently. 

**The German people, become clearsighted in 
war, and see in President Wilson's word nothing 
but an attempt to loosen the bonds between the 
people and princes of Germany so that we may 



258 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

become an easier prey for our enemies. We our- 
selves know that an important task remains to us 
to consolidate onr external power and our free^ 
dom at home." 

But the mask fell from the face of Germany 
which she shows the outside world, when the 
Kaiser issued his Easter proclamation promising 
election reforms after the war. Why did the 
Kaiser issue this proclamation again at this time I 
As early as January, 1916, he said the same thing 
to the German people in his address from the 
throne to the Prussian Diet. Why did the Kaiser 
feel that it was necessary to again call the atten- 
tion of the people to the fact that he would be a 
democrat when the war was over? The Kaiser 
and the German army are clever in dealing with 
the German people. If the Kaiser makes a mis- 
take or does something that his army does not 
approve it can always be remedied before the mis- 
take becomes public. 

Last Fall a young German soldier who had 
been in the United States as a moving picture 
operator was called to the General Staff to take 
moving pictures at the front for propaganda pur- 
poses. One week he was ordered to Belgium, to 
follow and photograph His Majesty. At Ostend, 
the famous Belgian summer resort, the Kaiser 
was walking along the beach one day with Ad- 
miral von Schroeder, who is in command of the 
German defences there. The movie operator fol- 
lowed him. The soldier had been following the 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 259 

Kaiser several days so His Majesty recognised 
him, ordered him to put up his camera and pre- 
pare to make a special film. When the camera 
was ready His Majesty danced a jig, waved his 
sceptre and then his helmet, smiled and shouted 
greetings to the camera man — then went on along 
the beach. 

When the photographer reached Berlin and 
showed the film to the censors of the General Staff 
they were shocked by the section of the Kaiser at 
Ostend. They ordered it cnt out of the film be- 
canse they did not think it advisable to show the 
German people how much their Emperor was en- 
joying the war! 

The Kaiser throughout his reign has posed as 
a peace man although he has been first a soldier 
and then an executive. So when the Big War 
broke out the Kaiser had a chance to make real 
what had been play for him for forty years. Is 
it surprising then that he should urge the people 
to go on with the war and promise them to re- 
form the government when the fighting was 
over? 

The Kaiser's proclamation itself shows that 
the Kaiser is not through fighting. 

** Never before have the German people proved 
to be so firm as in this war. The knowledge that 
the Fatherland is fighting in bitter self defence 
has exercised a wonderful reconciling power, and, 
despite all sacrifices on the battlefield and severe 



mo GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

privations at iiome, their determination has re- 
mained imperturbable to stake their last for the 
victorious issue/' 

Could any one except a soldier who was pleased 
with the progress of the war have written such 
words 1 

*^The national and social spirit have under- 
stood each other and become united, and have 
given us steadfast strength. Both of them realise 
what was built up in long years of peace and amid 
many internal struggles. This was certainly 
worth fighting for/^ the Emperor's order con- 
tinued. ** Brightly before my eyes stand the 
achievements of the entire nation in battle and 
distress. The events of this struggle for the ex- 
istence of the empire introduce with high solem- 
nity a new time. 

^^It falls to you as the responsible Chancellor of 
the German Empire and First Minister of my 
Government in Prussia to assist in obtaining the 
fulfilment of the demands of this hour by right 
means and at the right time, and in this spirit 
shape our political life in order to make room for 
the free and joyful co-operation of all the mem- 
bers of our people. 

^^The principles which you have developed in 
this respect have, as you know, my approval. 

**I feel conscious of remaining thereby on the 
road which my grandfather, the founder of the 



^rie^fitnummer 120. 




Wochenbeilage zum Berliner Tageblatt 
45. Jahrgang Nr. 46 17. November 1916 




^er neue a«e prdftdent. 



„G<f tebe Sdnerifa! G^ tebe bet $rie6en! 
e«( kbe bit 0ronatcnfo6nf!" 



"the new old president, long live AMERICA I LONG LIVE PEACE ! 
LONG LIVE THE AMMUNITION FACTORIES'/'' 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 261 

empire, as King of Prussia with military organi- 
sation and as German Emperor with social re- 
form, typically fulfilled as his monarchial obliga- 
tions, thereby creating conditions by which the 
German people, in united and wrathful persever- 
ance, will overcome this sanguinary time. The 
maintenance of the fighting force as a real peo- 
ple's army and the promotion of the social uplift 
of the people in all its classes was, from the be- 
ginning of my reign, my aim. 

^^In this endeavour, while holding a just bal- 
ance between the people and the monarchy to 
serve the welfare of the whole, I am resolved to 
begin building up our internal political, economic, 
and social life as soon as the war situation per- 
mits. 

^^ While millions of our fellow-countrymen are 
in the field, the conflict of opinions behind the 
front, which is unavoidable in such a far-reaching 
change of constitution, must be postponed in the 
highest interests of the Fatherland until the time 
of the homecoming of our warriors and when they 
themselves are able to join in the counsel and the 
voting on the progress of the new order.'' 

It was but natural that the Socialists should 
hail this declaration of the Kaiser's at first with 
enthusiasm. 

*^ Internal freedom in Prussia — that is a goal 
for which for more than one hundred years the 
best heads and best forces in the nation have 



262 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

worked. Resurrection day of the third war year 
— ^will go down in history as the day of the resur- 
rection of old Prussia to a new development," 
said the Vorwaerts, 

**It has brought us a promise, to be sure; not 
the resurrection itself, but a promise which is 
more hopeful and certain than all former an- 
nouncements together. This proclamation can 
never be annulled and lapse into dusty archives. 

^^This message promises us a thorough reform 
of the Prussian three class electoral system in ad- 
dition to a reform of the Prussian Upper House. 
In the coming new orientation the Government 
is only one factor, another is Parliament; the 
third and decisive factor is the people. ' ' 

Other Berlin newspapers spoke in a similar 
vein but not one of them pointed out to the public 
the fact that this concession by the Kaiser was 
not made in such a definite form, until the United 
States had declared war. As the United States 
entered the war to aid the democratic movement 
in Germany this concession by the Kaiser may be 
considered our first victory. 

As days go by it becomes more and more evi- 
dent that the American declaration of war is hav- 
ing an important influence upon internal condi- 
tions in Germany just as the submarine notes had. 
The German people really did not begin to think 
during this war until President Wilson challenged 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 263 

them in the notes which followed the torpedoing 
of the Lusitania. And now with the United States 
at war not only the people but the Government 
have decided to do some thinking. 

By April 12th when reports began to reach 
Germany of Ajnerica's determination to fight 
until there was a democracy in Germany the dem- 
ocratic press began to give more serious consid- 
eration to Americans alliance with the Allies. Dr. 
Ludwig Haas, one of the Socialist members of the 
Reichstag, in an article in the Berlin Tageblatt 
made the following significant statements. 

'^One man may be a hypocrite, but never a 
whole nation. If the American people accept this 
message [President Wilson's address before 
Congress] without a protest, then a tremendous 
abyss separates the logic of Germans from that of 
other nations. 

^^Woodrow Wilson is not so far wrong if he 
means the planning of war might be prevented if 
the people asserted the right to know everything 
about the foreign policies of their countries. But 
the President seems blind to the fact that a hand- 
ful of men have made it their secret and uncon- 
trolled business to direct the fate of the European 
democracies. With the press at one's command 
one can easily drive a poor people to a mania of 
enthusiasm, when they will carry on their shoul- 
ders the criminals who have led to the brink of 
disaster.'' 



264 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

Dr. Haas was beginiiiiig to understand tliat the 
anti-American campaign in Germany which the 
Navy started and the Foreign Office encouraged, 
had had some effect. 

Everything the United States does from now on 
will have a decisive influence in the world war. 
The Allies realise it and Washington knows it. 
Mr. Lloyd-George, the British Prime Minister, 
realised what a decisive effect American ships 
would have, when he said at the banquet of the 
American Luncheon Club in London: 

*^The road to victory, the guaranty of victory, 
the absolute assurance of victory, has to be found 
in one word, * ships,' and a second word, ^ ships,' 
and a third word, * ships.' " 

But our financial economic and military aid to 
the Allies will not be our greatest contribution 
towards victory. The influence of President Wil- 
son's utterances, of our determination and of our 
value as a friendly nation after the war will have 
a tremendous effect as time goes on upon the 
German people. As days and weeks pass, as the 
victory which the German Government has prom- 
ised the people becomes further and further 
away, the people, who are now doing more think- 
ing than they ever have done since the beginning 
of the war, will some day realise that in order to 
obtain peace, which they pray for and hope for, 
they will have to reform their government during 
the war — not after the war as the Kaiser plans. 



THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 265 

Military pressure from the outside is going to 
help this democratic movement in Germany suc- 
ceed in spite of itself. The New York World 
editorial on April 14th, discussing Mr. Lloyd- 
George's statement that ^^ Prussia is not a democ- 
racy; Prussia is not a state; Prussia is an army,'^ 
said : 

**It was the army and the arrogance actuating 
it which ordered hostilities in the first place. Be- 
cause there was no democracy in Prussia, the 
army had its way. The democracies of Great 
Britain and France, like the democracy of the 
United States, were reluctant to take arms but 
were forced to it. Russian democracy found its 
own deliverance on the fighting-line. 

^^In the fact that Prussia is not a democracy 
or a state but an army we may see a reason for 
many things usually regarded as inexplicable. 
It is Prussia the army which violates treaties. It 
is Prussia the army which disregards interna- 
tional law. It is Prussia the army, represented 
by the General Staff and the Admiralty, which 
sets at naught the engagements of the Foreign 
Office. It is Prussia the armv which has filled 
neutral countries with spies and lawbreakers, 
which has placed frightfulness above humanity, 
and in a fury of egotism and savagery has chal- 
lenged the world. 

*' Under such a terrorism, as infamous at home 
as it is abroad, civil government has perished. 



Q66 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

There is no civil government in a Germany dra- 
gooned by Prussia. There is no law in Germany 
but military law. There is no obligation in Ger- 
many except to the army. It is not Germany the 
democracy or Germany the state, it is Germany 
the army, that is to be crushed for its own good 
no less than for that of civilisation.'' 

The United States entered the war at the psy- 
chological and critical moment. We enter it at 
the moment when our economic and financial re- 
sources, and our determination will have the de- 
cisive influence. We enter at the moment when 
every one of our future acts will assist and help 
the democratic movement in Germany succeed. 



CHAPTER XII 



PKESIDENT WILSON 



THE United States entered the war at a time 
when many Americans believed the Allies 
were about to win it. By May 1st, 1917, 
the situation so changed in Europe that it was 
apparent to observers that only by the most stu- 
pendous et^orts of all the Allies could the German 
Government be defeated. 

At the very beginning of the war, when Teu- 
tonic militarism spread over Europe, it was like 
a forest fire. But two years of fighting have 
checked it — as woodsmen check forest fires — ^by 
digging ditches and preventing the flames from 
spreading. Unlimited submarine warfare, how- 
ever, is something new. It is militarism spread- 
ing to the high seas and to the shores of neutrals. 
It is Ruthlessism — the new German menace, 
which is as real and dangerous for us and for 
South America as for England and the Allies. If 
we hold out until Ruthlessism spends its fury, we 
will win. But we must fight and fight desperately 
to hold out. 

Dr. Kaempf, President of the Reichstag, de- 
clared that President Wilson would *^bite mar- 

267 



^68 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

ble*' before the war was over. And the success 
of submarine warfare during April and the first 
part of May was such as to arouse the whole 
world to the almost indefinite possibilities of this 
means of fighting. The real crisis of the war has 
not been reached. We are approaching it. The 
Allies have attempted for two years without much 
success to curb the U-boat danger. They have at- 
tempted to build steel ships, also without success, 
^so that the real burden of winning the war in 
Europe falls upon American shoulders. 

Fortunately for the United States we are not 
making the blunders at the beginning of our in- 
tervention which some of the European nations 
have been making since August, 1914. America 
is awakened to the needs of modern war as no 
other nation was, thanks to the splendid work 
which the American newspapers and magazines 
have done during the war to present clearly, fairly 
and accurately not only the great issues but the 
problems of organisation and military tactics. 
The people of the United States are better in- 
formed about the war as a whole than are the 
people in any European country. American news- 
papers have not made the mistakes which English 
and French journals made — of hating the enemy 
so furiously as to think that nothing more than 
criticism and hate were necessary to defeat him. 
iNot until this year could one of Great Britain's 
statesmen declare: **You can damn the Germans 



Professor Charles Gray Shaw, of New York University, 
stated before one of his classes in philosophy that there 
was a new ^'will" typified in certain of our citizens, 
notably in President "Wilson. 

' ' The new psychology, ' ' said Professor Shaw, ' ' has dis- 
covered the new will — the will that turns inward upon 
the brain instead of passing out through hand or tongue. 
Wilson has this new will ; the "White House corroborates 
the results of the laboratory. To Roosevelt, Wilson 
seems weak and vacillating; but that is because T. R. 
knows nothing about the new will. T. R. has a primitive 
mind, but one of the most advanced type. In the T. R. 
brain, so to speak, will means set teeth, clenched fist, 
hunting, and rough riding. 

''Wilson may be regarded as either creating the new 
volition or as having discovered it. At any rate, Wilson 
possesses and uses the new volition, and it remains to be 
seen whether the political world, at home and abroad, is 
ready for it. Here it is significant to observe that the 
Germans, who are psychologists, recognize the fact that 
a new and important function of the mind has been fo- 
cused upon them. 

"The Germans fear and respect the Wilson will of 
note writing more than they would have dreaded the 
T. R. will with its teeth and fists. ' ' 

As a psychologist Professor Shaw observed what we 
saw to be the effect in Germany, of Mr. Wilson's will. 

THE WILSON WILL 



270 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

until you are blue in the face, but that will not 
beat them/' 

The United States enters the greatest war in 
history at the psychological moment with a capa- 
ble and determined president, a united nation and 
almost unlimited resources in men, money and 
munitions. 

There is a tremendous difference between the 
situation in the United States and that in any 
other European country. During the two years I 
was in Europe I visited every nation at war ex- 
cept Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkey. I saw condi- 
tions in the neutral countries of Holland, Den- 
mark, Switzerland and Spain. The one big thing 
which impressed me upon my arrival in New York 
was that the United States, in contrast to all these 
countries, has, as yet, not been touched by the 
war. Americans are not living under the strain 
and worry which hang like dreadful dull clouds 
over every European power. In Switzerland the 
economic worries and the sufferings of the neigh- 
bouring belligerents have made the Swiss people 
feel that they are in the centre of the war itself. 
In France, although Paris is gay, although peo- 
ple smile (they have almost forgotten how to 
smile in Germany) , although streets are crowded, 
and stores busy, the atmosphere is earnest and 
serious. Spain is torn by internal troubles. 
There is a great army of unemployed. The sub- 
marine war has destroyed many Spanish ships 
and interrupted Spanish trade with belligerents. 



PRESIDENT WILSON 271 

Business houses are unable to obtain credit. Ger- 
man propaganda is sowing sedition and tlie King 
himself is uncertain about the future. But in the 
United States there is a gigantic display of en- 
ergy and potential power which makes this coun- 
try appear to possess sufficient force in itself to 
defeat Germany. Berlin is drained and dead in 
comparison. Paris, while busy, is war-busy and 
every one and everything seems to move and live 
because of the war. In New York and throughout 
the country there are young men by the hundreds 
of thousands. Germany and France have no young 
men outside the armies. Here there are millions 
of automobiles and millions of people hurrying, 
happy and contented, to and from their work. In 
Germany there are no automobiles which are not 
in the service of the Government and rubber tires 
are so nearly exhausted that practically all auto- 
mobiles have iron wheels. 

Some Americans have lived for many years 
with the idea that only certain sections of the 
United States were related to Europe. Many 
people, especially those in the Middle "West, have 
had the impression that only the big shipping 
interests and exporters had direct interests in 
affairs across the ocean. But when Germany be- 
gan to take American lives on the high seas, when 
German submarines began to treat American 
ships like all other belligerent vessels, it began to 
dawn upon people here that this country was very 
closely connected to Europe by blood ties as well 



^n GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

■as by business bonds. It has taken the United 
States two years to learn that Europe was not, 
after all, three thousand miles away when it came 
to the vital moral issues of live international 
policies. Before Congress declared war I found 
many Americans criticising President Wilson for 
not declaring war two years ago. While I do not 
know what the situation was during my absence 
still the impression which Americans abroad had, 
even American officials, was that President Wil- 
son would not have had the support of a united 
people which he has to-day had he entered the 
war before all question of doubt regarding the 
moral issues had disappeared. 

In the issue of April 14th of this year the New 
Republic^ of New York, in an editorial on ^'Who 
willed American participation!'' cast an interest- 
ing light upon the reasons for our intervention in 
the Great War. 

** Pacifist agitators who have been so courage- 
ously opposing, against such heavy odds, Ameri- 
can participation in the war have been the victims 
of one natural but considerable mistake,'' says 
The New Republic. ''They have insisted that the 
chief beneficiaries of American participation 
would be the munition-makers, bankers and in 
general the capitalist class, that the chief suffer- 
ers would be the petty business men and the wage- 
earners. They have consequently considered the 
former classes to be conspiring in favour of war, 



PRESIDENT WILSON 273 

and now that war has come, they condemn it as 
the work of a small but powerful group of prof- 
iteers. Senator Norris had some such meaning 
in his head when he asserted that a declaration 
of war would be equivalent to stamping the dollar 
mark on the American flag. 

^^This explanation of the great decision is an 
absurd mistake, but the pacifists have had some 
excuses for making it. They have seen a great 
democratic nation gradually forced into war, in 
spite of the manifest indifference or reluctance of 
the majority of its population; and, they have 
rightly attributed the successful pressure to the 
ability of a small but influential minority to im- 
pose its will on the rest of the country. But the 
numerically insignificant class whose influence 
has been successfully exerted in favour of Ameri- 
can participation does not consist of the bankers 
and the capitalists. Neither will they be the chief 
beneficiaries of American participation. The 
bankers and the capitalists have favoured war, 
but they have favoured it without realising the 
extent to which it would injure their own inter- 
ests, and their support has been one of the most 
formidable political obstacles to American par- 
ticipation. The effective and decisive work on 
behalf of war has been accomplished by an en- 
tirely different class — a class which must be com- 
prehensively but loosely described as the ^intel- 
lectuals. ' 

^ ^ The American nation is entering this war un- 



274 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

der the influence of a moral verdict readied after 
the utmost deliberation by the more thoughtful 
members of the community. They gradually came 
to a decision that the attack made by Germany on 
the international order was sufficiently flagrant 
and dangerous to justify this country in abandon- 
ing its cherished isolation and in using its re- 
sources to bring about German defeat. But these 
thoughtful people were always a small minority. 
They were able to impose their will upon a re- 
luctant or indifferent majority partly because the 
increasingly offensive nature of German military 
and diplomatic policy made plausible opposition 
to American participation very difficult, but still 
more because of the overwhelming preponderance 
of pro-Ally conviction in the intellectual life of 
the country. If the several important profes- 
sional and social groups could have voted sepa- 
rately on the question of war and peace, the list 
of college professors would probably have yielded 
the largest majority in favour of war, except per- 
haps that contained in the Social Register. A 
fighting anti-German spirit was more general 
among physicians, lawyers and clergymen than 
it was among business men — except those with 
Wall Street and banking connections. Finally, it 
was not less general among writers on magazines 
and in the newspapers. They popularised what 
the college professors had been thinking. Owing 
to this consensus of influences opposition to pro- 
Ally orthodoxy became intellectually somewhat 



Nr. 



mss«iiftei« 




Presse=Tribiiiie 

ill! ^lizun^ssaal flc<!» Ueiclistag:^ 






Nnr giiltig am 



Eliit^aiij? 'i (SominerstraKe) oder Eingjuii; 5 (Ueiflistagsplatz). 



Niclit iibertragbar! 



THE AUTHOR S CARD OF ADMISSION TO THE REICHSTAG 
ON APRIL 5TH, I916 



PRESIDENT WILSON 275 

disreputable, and when a final decision had to be 
made this factor counted with unprecedented and 
overwhelming force. College professors headed 
by a President who had himself been a college 
professor contributed more effectively to the de- 
cision in favour of war than did the farmers, the 
business men or the politicians. 

^'When one considers the obstacles to American 
entrance into the war, the more remarkable and 
unprecedented does the final decision become. 
Every other belligerent had something immediate 
and tangible to gain by participating and to lose 
by not participating. Either they were invaded 
or were threatened with invasion. Either they 
dreaded the loss of prestige or territory or cov- 
eted some kind or degree of national aggrandise- 
ment. Even Australia and Canada, who had little 
or nothing to gain from fighting, could not have 
refused to fight without severing their connection 
with the British Empire, and behaving in a man- 
ner which would have been considered treacher- 
ous by their fellow Britons. But the American 
people were not forced into the war either by 
fears or hopes or previously recognised obliga- 
tions. On the contrary, the ponderable and tan- 
gible realities of the immediate situation coun- 
selled neutrality. They were revolted by the 
hideous brutality of the war and its colossal 
waste. Participation must be purchased with a 
similarly colossal diversion of American energy 
from constructive to destructive work, the imposi- 



276 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

tion of a similarly heavy burden upon the future 
production of American labour. It implied the 
voluntary surrender of many of those advan- 
tages which had tempted our ancestors to cross 
the Atlantic and settle in the New World. As 
against these certain costs there were no equally 
tangible compensations. The legal rights of 
American citizens were, it is true, being violated, 
and the structure of international law with which 
Ajnerican security was traditionally associated 
was being shivered, but the nation had weathered 
a similar storm during the Napoleonic Wars and 
at that time participation in the conflict had been 
wholly unprofitable. By spending a small portion 
of the money which will have to be spent in help- 
ing the Allies to beat Germany, upon prepara- 
tions exclusively for defence, the American na- 
tion could have protected for the time being the 
inviolability of its own territory and its necessary 
communications with the Panama Canal. Many 
considerations of national egotism counselled such 
a policy. But although the Hearst newspapers 
argued most persuasively on behalf of this course, 
it did not prevail. The American nation allowed 
itself to be captured by those upon whom the 
more remote and less tangible reasons for par- 
ticipation acted with compelling authority. For 
the first time in history a wholly independent na- 
tion has entered a great and costly war under the 
influence of ideas rather than immediate interests 
and without any expectation of gains, except those 



PRESIDENT WILSON 277 

which can be shared with all liberal and inoffen- 
sive nations. 

**The United States might have blundered into 
the war at any time during the past two years, 
but to have entered, as it is now doing, at the 
right time and in the clear interest of a purely 
international programme required the exercise of 
an intellectualised and imaginative leadership. 
And in supplying the country with this leadership 
Mr. Wilson was interpreting the ideas of thought- 
ful Americans who wished their country to be 
fighting on the side of international right, but not 
until the righteousness of the Allied cause was 
unequivocally established. It has taken some time 
to reach this assurance. The war originated in 
conflicting national ambitions among European 
Powers for privileged economic and political po- 
sitions in Africa and Asia, and if it had continued 
to be a war of this kind there never could have 
been a question of American intervention. Ger- 
many, however, had been dreaming of a more 
glorious goal than Bagdad and a mightier heri- 
tage than that of Turkey. She betrayed her 
dream by attacking France through Belgium and 
by threatening the foundations of European or- 
der. The crucifying of Belgium established a 
strong presumption against Germany, but the 
case was not complete. There still remained the 
dubious origin of the war. There still remained 
a doubt whether the defeat of German militarism 
might not mean a dangerous triumph of Russian 



S78 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

autocracy. Above all there remained a more seri- 
ous doubt whether the United States in aiding the 
Allies to beat Germany might not be contributing 
merely to the establishment of a new and equally 
unstable and demoralising Balance of Power in 
Europe. It was well, consequently, to wait and 
see whether the development of the war would 
not do away with some of the ambiguities and 
misgivings, while at the same time to avoid doing 
anything to embarrass the Allies. The waiting 
policy has served. Germany was driven by the 
logic of her original aggression to threaten the 
security of all neutrals connected with the rest of 
the world by maritime communications. The Rus- 

< sian autocracy was overthrown, because it be- 
trayed its furtive kinship with the German au- 
tocracy. Finally, President Wilson used the wait- 
ing period for the education of Ajnerican public 
opinion. His campaign speeches prophesied the 
abandonment of American isolation in the interest 
of a League of Peace. His note of last December 
to the belligerents brought out the sinister secrecy 

^ of German peace terms and the comparative 
frankness of that of the Allies. His address to 
the Senate clearly enunciated the only programme 
on behalf of which Ajnerica could intervene in 
European affairs. Never was there a purer and 
more successful example of Fabian political 
strategy, for Fabianism consists not merely in 
waiting but in preparing during the meantime 



PRESIDENT WILSON 279 

for the successful application of a plan to a con- 
fused and dangerous situation. 

**What Mr. Wilson did was to apply patience 
and brains to a complicated and difficult but de- 
veloping political situation. He was distinguished 
from his morally indignant pro-Allies fellow coun- 
trymen, who a few months ago were abusing him 
for seeking to make a specifically American con- 
tribution to the issues of the war, just as Lincoln 
was distinguished from the abolitionists, not so 
much by difference in purposes as by greater po- 
litical wisdom and intelligence. It is because of 
his Fabianism, because he insisted upon waiting 
until he had established a clear connection be- 
tween American intervention and an attempt to 
create a community of nations, that he can com- 
mand and secure for American intervention the 
full allegiance of the American national con- 
science. His achievement is a great personal tri- 
umph, but it is more than that. It is an illustra- 
tion and a prophecy of the part which intelligence 
and in general the ^ntellectuaP class have an op- 
portunity of playing in shaping American policy 
and in moulding American life. The intimate 
association between action and ideas, character- 
istic of American political practice at its best, has 
been vindicated once more. The association was 
started at the foundation of the Republic and was 
embodied in the work of the Fathers, but particu- 
larly in that of Hamilton. It was carried on dur- 
ing the period of the Civil War and was embodied 



280 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

chiefly in the patient and penetrating intelligence 
which Abraham Lincoln brought to his task. It 
has just been established in the region of foreign 
policy by Mr. Wilson ^s discriminating effort to 
keep the United States out of the war until it 
could go in as the instrument of an exclusively 
international programme and with a fair prospect 
of getting its progranune accepted. In holding 
to this policy Mr. Wilson was interpreting with 
fidelity and imagination the ideas and the aspira- 
tions of the more thoughtful Americans. His 
success should give them increasing confidence in 
the contribution which they as men of intelligence 
are capable of making to the fulfilment of the bet- 
ter American national purposes.'' 

During 1915 and 1916 our diplomatic relations 
with Germany have been expressed in one series 
of notes after another, and the burden of affairs 
has been as much on the shoulders of Ambassador 
Gerard as on those of any other one American, 
for he has been the official who has had to trans- 
mit, interpret and fight for our policies in Berlin. 
Mr. Gerard had a difficult task because he, like 
President Wilson, was constantly heckled and 
ridiculed by those pro-German Americans who 
were more interested in discrediting the Admin- 
istration than in maintaining peace. Of all the 
problems with which the Ambassador had to con- 
tend, the German-American issue was the great- 
est, and those who believed that it was centred 



PRESIDENT WILSON 281 

in the United States are mistaken, for the capital 
of German- America was Berlin. 

'*I have had a great deal of trouble in Germany 
from the American correspondents when they 
went there," said Ambassador Gerard in an ad- 
dress to the American Newspapers Publishers As- 
sociation in New York on April 26th. 

^^Most of them became super- Ambassadors and 
proceeded to inform the German Government that 
they must not believe me — that they must not be- 
lieve the President — they must not believe the 
American people — ^but believe these people, and 
to a great extent this war is due to the fact that 
these pro-German Americans, a certain number 
of them, misinformed the German Government as 
to the sentiments of this country." 

James W. Gerard's diplomatic career in Ger- 
many was based upon bluntness, frankness and a 
kind of **news instinct" which caused him to re- 
gard his position as that of a reporter for the 
United States Government. 

Berlin thought him the most unusual Ambassa- 
dor it had ever known. It never knew how to 
take him. He did not behave as other diplomats 
did. When he went to the Foreign Office it was 
always on business. He did not flatter and praise, 
bow and chat or speak to Excellencies in the third 
person as European representatives usually do. 
Gerard began at the beginning of the war a pol- 
icy of keeping the United States fully informed 



282 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

regarding Germany. He iised to report daily the 
political developments and the press comment, and 
the keen understanding which he had of German 
methods was proved by his many forecasts of 
important developments. Last September he pre- 
dicted, in a message to the State Department, 
ruthless submarine warfare before Spring unless 
peace was made. He notified Washington last 
October to watch for German intrigue in Mexico 
and said that unless we solved the problem there 
we might have trouble throughout the war from 
Germans south of the Rio Grande. 

During the submarine controversies, when re- 
ports reached Berlin that the United States was 
divided and would not support President Wilson 
in his submarine policy, Ambassador Gerard did 
everything he could to give the opposite impres- 
sion. He tried his best to keep Germany from 
driving the United States into the war. That he 
did not succeed was not the fault of his efforts. 
Germany was desperate and willing to disregard 
all nations and all international obligations in an 
attempt to win the war with U-boats. 

Last Summer, during one of the crises over the 
sinking of a passenger liner without warning, Mr. 
Gerard asked the Chancellor for an audience with 
the Kaiser. Von Bethmann-Hollweg said he 
would see if it could be arranged. The Ambassa- 
dor waited two weeks. Nothing was done. From 
his friends in Berlin he learned that the Navy 
was opposed to such a conference and would not 




AMBASSADOR GERARD ARRIVING IN PARIS. AMBASSADOR 
SHARP AT THE LEFT, MR. GERARD IS CARRYING A BAG 
OF GOLD WHICH HE TOOK TO GERMANY IN DECEMBER, 
I916. HE BROUGHT EVERY DOLLAR (ABOUT $25,000) 
BACK TO WASHINGTON 



PRESIDENT WILSON 283 

give its consent. Mr, Gerard went to Herr von 
Jagow who was then Secretary of State and again 
asked for an audience. He waited another week. 
Nothing happened and Mr. Gerard wrote the fol- 
lowing note to the Chancellor : 

^^Your Excellency, 

i i Three weeks ago I asked for an audience with 
His Majesty the Kaiser. 

'*A week ago I repeated the request. 
*^ Please do not trouble yourself further. 

^^EespectfuUy, 

** James W. Gekaed." 

The Ambassador called the Embassy messenger 
and sent the note to the Chancellor's palace. 
Three hours later he was told that von Bethmann- 
Hollweg had gone to Great Headquarters to ar- 
range for the meeting. 

Sometimes in dealing with the Foreign Office 
the Ambassador used the same rough-shod meth- 
ods which made the Big Stick effective during 
the Eoosevelt Administration. At one time, Alex- 
ander Cochran, of New York, acted as special 
courier from the Embassy in London to Berlin. 
At the frontier he was arrested and imprisoned. 
The Ambassador heard of it, went to the Foreign 
Office and demanded Cochran's immediate re- 
lease. The Ambassador had obtained Mr. Coch- 
ran's passports, and showed them to the Secre- 
tary of State. When Herr von Jagow asked per- 



284 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

mission to retain one of the passports so the mat- 
ter could be investigated, the Ambassador said : 

** All right, but first let me tear Lansing's signa- 
ture off the bottom, or some one may nse the pass- 
port for other purposes.'' 

The Ambassador was not willing to take 
chances after it was learned and proved by the 
State Department that Germany was using Amer- 
ican passports for spy purposes. 

In one day alone, last fall, the American Em- 
bassy sent 92 notes to the Foreign Office, some 
authorised by Washington and some unauthor- 
ised, protesting against unlawful treatment of 
Americans, asking for reforms in prison camps, 
transmitting money and letters about German af- 
fairs in Entente countries, and other, matters 
which were under discussion between Berlin and 
Washington. At one time an American woman 
instructor in Roberts' College was arrested at 
Warnemuende and kept for weeks from communi- 
cating with the Ambassador. When he heard of 
it he went to the Foreign Office daily, demanding 
her release, which he finally secured. 

Mr. Gerard's work in bettering conditions in 
prison camps, especially at Ruhleben, will be long 
remembered. When conditions were at their 
worst he went out daily to keep himself informed, 
and then daily went to the Foreign Office or wrote 
to the Ministry of War in an effort to get better 
accommodations for the men. One day he discov- 
ered eleven prominent English civilians, former 



PRESIDENT WILSON 285 

respected residents in Berlin, living in a box stall 
similar to one which his riding horse had occu- 
pied in peace times. This so aroused the Am- 
bassador that he volunteered to furnish funds for 
the construction of a new barracks in case the 
Government was not willing to do it But the 
Foreign Office and the War Ministry and other 
officials shifted authority so often that it was im- 
possible to get changes made. The Ambassador 
decided to have his reports published in a drastic 
effort to gain relief for the prisoners. The State 
Department granted the necessary authority and 
his descriptions of Ruhleben were published in 
the United States and England, arousing such a 
world-wide storm of indignation that the German 
Government changed the prison conditions and 
made Ruhleben fit for men for the first time since 
the beginning of the war. 

This activity of the Ambassador aroused a 
great deal of bitterness and the Government de- 
cided to try to have him recalled. The press cen- 
sorship instigated various newspapers to attack 
the Ambassador so that Germany might be justi- 
fied in asking for his recall, but the attack failed 
for the simple reason that there was no evidence 
against the Ambassador except that he had been 
too vigorous in insisting upon livable prison camp 
conditions. 

• •••»•» 

I have pointed out in previous chapters some 
of the things which President Wilson's notes ac- 



286 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

complislied in Germany during the war. Suppose 
the Kaiser were to grant certain reforms, would 
this destroy the possibilities of a free Germany, 
a democratic nation — a German Republic? 

The German people were given an opportunity 
to debate and think about international issues 
while we maintained relations with Berlin, but as 
I pointed out, the Kaiser and his associates are 
masters of German psychology and during the 
next few months they may temporarily undo what 
we accomplished during two years. Americans 
must remember that at the present time all the 
leading men of Germany are preaching to the 
people the gospel of submarine success, and the 
anti- American campaign there is being conducted 
unhindered and unchallenged. The United States 
and the Allies have pledged their national honour 
and existence to defeat and discredit the Imperial 
German Government and nothing but unfaltering 
determination, no matter what the Kaiser does, 
will bring success. Unless he is defeated, the 
Kaiser will not follow the Czar's example. 

In May of this year the German Government 
believed it was winning the war. Berlin believed 
it would decisively defeat our Allies before Fall. 
But even if the people of Germany again compel 
their Government to propose peace and the Kaiser 
announces that he is in favour of such drastic 
reforms as making his Ministry responsible to 
the Reichstag, this (though it might please the 
German people) cannot, must not, satisfy us. Only 



PRESIDENT WILSON 287 

a firm refusal of the Allies will accomplish what 
we have set out to do — overthrow the present 
rulers and dictators of Germany. This must 
include not only the Kaiser but Field Marshal 
von Hindenburg and the generals in control of 
the army, the Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, 
who did not keep his promises to the United 
States and the naval leaders who have been in- 
triguing and fighting for war with America for 
over two years. Only a decisive defeat of Ger- 
many will make Germany a republic, and the task 
is stupendous enough to challenge the best com- 
bined efforts of the United States and all the 
Allies. 

Prophecy is a dangerous pastime but it would 
not be fair to conclude this book without pointing 
out some of the possibilities which can develop 
from the policy which President Wilson pursued 
in dealing with Germany before diplomatic rela- 
tions were broken. 

The chief effect of Mr. Wilson's policy is not 
going to be felt during this war, but in the future. 
At the beginning of his administration he empha- 
sised the fact that in a democracy public opinion 
was a bigger factor than armies and navies. If all 
Europe emerges from this war as democratic as 
seems possible now one can see that Mr. Wilson 
has already laid the foundation for future inter- 
national relations between free people and repub- 
lican forms of governments. This war has de- 
feated itself. It is doubtful whether there ever 



288 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

will be another world war because the opinion of 
all civilised people is mobilised against war. 
After one has seen what war is like, one is against 
not only war itself but the things which bring 
about war. This great war was made possible 
because Europe has been expecting and preparing 
for it ever since 1870 and because the govern- 
ments of Europe did not take either the people or 
their neighbours into their confidence. President 
Wilson tried to show while he was president that 
the people should be fully informed regarding all 
steps taken by the Government. In England 
where the press has had such a tussle to keep 
from being curbed by an autocratic censorship 
the world has learned new lessons in publicity. 
The old policy of keeping from the public un- 
pleasant information has been thrown overboard 
in Great Britain because it was found that it 
harmed the very foundations of democracy. 

International relations in the future will, to a 
great extent, be moulded along the lines of Mr. 
Wilson's policies during this war. Diplomacy 
will be based upon a full discussion of all inter- 
national issues. The object of diplomacy will be 
to reach an understanding to prevent wars, not 
to avoid them at the eleventh hour. Just as en- 
lightened society tries to prevent murder so will 
civilised nations in the future try to prevent wars. 

Mr. Wilson expressed his faith in this new de- 
velopment in international affairs by saying that 










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'^^^/^^^>^^^%s^-J^^*V^^^^Ji^^^^ '^^^ 



A POST-CARD FROM GENERAL VON KLUCK 



PRESIDENT WILSON 289 

**the opinion of the world is the mistress of the 
world. *' 

The important concern to-day is : How can this 
world opinion be moulded into a world power? 

Opinion cannot be codified like law because it 
is often the vanguard of legislation. Public opin- 
ion is the reaction of a thousand and one inci- 
dents upon the public consciousness. In the world 
to-day the most important influence in the devel- 
opment of opinion is the daily press. By a ju- 
dicious interpretation of affairs the President of 
the United States frequently may direct public 
opinion in certain channels while his representa- 
tives to foreign governments, especially when 
there is opportunity, as there is to-day, may help 
spread our ideas abroad. 

World political leaders, if one may judge from 
events so far, foresee a new era in international 
affairs. Instead of a nation's foreign policies 
being secret, instead of unpublished alliances and 
iron-bound treaties, there may be the proclaiming 
of a nation's international intentions, exactly as 
a political party in the United States pledges its 
intentions in a political campaign. Parties in 
Europe may demand a statement of the foreign 
intentions of their governments. If there was 
this candidness between the governments and 
their citizens there would be more frankness be- 
tween the nations and their neighbours. Public 
opinion would then be the decisive force. Inter- 
national steps of all nations would then be de- 



290 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

cided upon only after the public was thoroughly 
acquainted with their every phase. A fully in- 
formed nation would be considered safer and 
more peace-secure than a nation whose opinion 
was based upon coloured official reports, *^Ems" 
telegrams of 1870 and 1914 variety, and eleventh- 
hour appeals to passion, fear and God. 

The opinion of the world may then be a stronger 
international force than large individual armies 
and navies. The opinion of the world may be 
such a force that every nation will respect and 
fear it. The opinion of the world may be the 
mistress of the world and publicity will be the 
new driving force in diplomacy to give opinion 
world power. 

Germany's defeat will be the greatest event in 
history because it will establish world democracy 
upon a firm foundation and because Germany it- 
self will emerge democratic. The Chancellor has 
frequently stated that the Germany which would 
come out of this war would be nothing like the 
Germany which went into the war and the Kaiser 
has already promised a ^* people's kingdom of 
Hohenzollern. " The Kaiser's government will 
be reformed because world opinion insists upon 
it. If the German people do not yet see this, they 
will be outlawed until they are free. They will 
see it eventually, and when that day comes, peace 
will dawn in Europe. 



APPENDIX 

Cornell University, 
Ithaca, N. Y. 
Deae Sir: 

Eeturning to Ithaca, I find your letter with its 
question relating to the temporary arrest of a 
vessel carrying munitions of war to Spain shortly 
after the beginning of our war with that country. 
The simple facts are as follows: Receiving a 
message by wire from our American Consul at 
Hamburg early during the war, to the effect that 
a Spanish vessel supposed to carry munitions for 
Spain was just leaving Germany, I asked the 
Foreign Office that the vessel be searched before 
leaving, my purpose being not only to get such 
incidental information as possible regarding the 
contraband concerned, but particulars as to the 
nature of the vessel, whether it was so fitted that 
it could be used with advantage by our adver- 
saries against our merchant navy, as had hap- 
pened during our Civil War, when Great Britain 
let out of her ports vessels fitted to prey upon our 
merchant ships. 

The German Government was very courteous to 
us in the matter and it was found that the Spanish 
ship concerned was not so fitted up and that the 

291 



292 GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC? 

contraband was of a very ordinary sort, such as 
could be obtained from various nations. The re- 
sult was that the vessel, after a brief visit, pro- 
ceeded on her way, and our agents at Hamburg 
informed me later that during the entire war ves- 
sels freely carried ammunition from German 
ports both to Spain and to the United States, and 
that neither of the belligerents made any remon- 
strance. Of course, I was aware that under the 
usages of nations I had, strictly speaking, no right 
to demand seizure of the contraband concerned, 
but it seemed my duty at least to secure the above 
information regarding it and the ship which car- 
ried it. 

I remain, dear sir, 

Very respectfully yours, 

(Signed) ANDREW D. WHITE. 



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